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HowTo: Iterate Bash For Loop Vari-

able Range Under Unix / Linux
last updated April 20, 2012 in BASH Shell

H
ow can I iterate bash for loop using a variable range of
numbers in Unix or Linux or BSD or Apple OS X operating
systems?

You can use the following syntax for setting up ranges:

#!/bin/bash
for i in {1..5}
do
echo "$i"
done

However, the following will not work:

#!/bin/bash
START=1

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END=5
for i in {$START..$END}
do
echo "$i"
done

Recommended solution

To �x this problem use three-expression bash for loops syntax which share a common
heritage with the C programming language. It is characterized by a three-parameter
loop control expression; consisting of an initializer (EXP1), a loop-test or condition (EXP2),
and a counting expression (EXP3):

#!/bin/bash
START=1
END=5
echo "Countdown"

for (( c=$START; c<=$END; c++ ))

do
echo -n "$c "
sleep 1
done

echo
echo "Boom!"

Sample outputs:

Countdown
1 2 3 4 5
Boom!

while…do..done

Another option is to use the bash while statement which is used to execute a list of
commands repeatedly:

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#!/bin/bash
START=1
END=5
## save $START, just in case if we need it later ##
i=$START
while [[ $i -le $END ]]
do
echo "$i"
((i = i + 1))
done

Fixing the original code with eval

With eval builtins the arguments are concatenated together into a single command,
which is then read and executed:

#!/bin/bash
START=1
END=5
for i in $(eval echo "{$START..$END}")
do
echo "$i"
done

A note about iterate through an array

The Bash shell support one-dimensional array variables and you can use the following
syntax to iterate through an array:

#!/bin/bash

## define an array ##
arrayname=( Dell HP Oracle )

## get item count using ${arrayname[@]} ##

for m in "${arrayname[@]}"
do
echo "${m}"
# do something on $m #
done

Sample outputs:

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Dell
HP
Oracle

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Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and a trainer
for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin,
Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email newsletter.

GOT FEEDBACK? CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE DISCUSSION

6 comment

xeuler May 4, 2012 at 3:06 am

Hi.

when i use {1..10000000} in

for x in {1..10000000} ; do : ; done

* do nothing

bash uses 2 GB of ram.

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Is the same when i use seq

for i in $(seq 1 10000000); do :; done

The memory is still in use until i close de session (terminal).

it’s like fork bom xp

Mark S May 15, 2012 at 6:04 pm

When working with contiguous numerical ranges that increase, I �nd the command
‘seq’ to be more ef�cient and powerful. For example, let’s go from 0 to 20 by increments
of 3 and output some �bonacci stylings :-)

for i in `seq 0 3 20`

do
((j = $j + $i))
echo $j
done

‘seq’ also has a few options such as padding with leading zeros, changing the �eld
separator and changing the printf format. The -w for leading zeros comes in handy
frequently. Issue ‘man seq’ for the details.

Xiaofeng July 12, 2012 at 2:26 am

hi VIVEK, could u tell me why your second sample didn’t work? it’s unusual to my
intuition. and not easy to understand.

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Jason September 26, 2012 at 2:21 am

There is incorrect information in the last example. It says:

## get item count using ${arrayname[@]} ##

This only concatenates the items of the array together separated by whitespace (which
works for the example). But to get the count of an array,

${#arrayname[@]}

or

${#arrayname[*]}

is used.

tushar November 15, 2015 at 3:43 pm

*****
****
***
**
*
how i make this using for loop

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Odd Tom January 2, 2017 at 9:57 pm

#!/bin/bash
for((i = 1; i = i; c--))
do
echo -n "*"
done
echo
done

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Tagged as: apple os x, array variables, bash for loop, bash for loop example, BASH Shell, bsd,
c programming language, c sleep, control expression, dimensional array, loop control,
operating systems, oracle, shell support, variable range

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