From: Lea Gris
Subject: Re: [bug #67782] bash split $() for array initialization but not for
associative array initialization
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2025 13:50:33 +0100
>It is not buggy. You are declaring the array content which is a key
>with an empty value since you are providing 4 arguments to declare:
>- -A
>- a=(
>- $'[A]=a\n[B]=b\n[C]=c'
>- )
>If you need to dynamically declare an associative array, you need to use:
>unset a ; declare -A a="(
> $(
> echo [A]=a
> echo '[B]=b'
> echo ['C']=c
> )
>)"
>echo Nb of elements : ${#a[@]}
>declare -p a
>Nb of elements : 3
>declare -A a=([C]="c" [B]="b" [A]="a" )
Well done. Always quote your variables!
Note, BTW, that shellcheck catches (i.e., would have caught) this
problem. Without the quoting, it complains that associative array
assignment requires an index value. With the quoting, it does not
complain.
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