awk: how to extract strings directly into bash array?

Question

let's say I have this:

ARRAY=()
NUM_EXTRACTED=$(cat somefile.txt | awk '/magic/{i++; print > i "_extracted.txt"} END {print i}')
for (( i=1; i<=$NUM_EXTRACTED; i++)); do
  LINE=$(cat "$i"_extracted.txt)
  ARRAY+=("$LINE")
done

this script takes all lines in somefile.txt that contain the word 'magic' and put them into the array ARRAY

how can I fill ARRAY directly, without storing the lines out into temporary files?

can you provide few lines from somefile.txt

Siva
– Siva

2021-02-19 18:42:26 +00:00
Commented Feb 19, 2021 at 18:42 — Siva
– Siva, Commented Feb 19, 2021 at 18:42
If you don't have to use awk, there's mapfile.

Jeff Schaller
– Jeff Schaller ♦

2021-02-19 18:45:14 +00:00
Commented Feb 19, 2021 at 18:45 — Jeff Schaller
– Jeff Schaller ♦, Commented Feb 19, 2021 at 18:45

Jeff Schaller · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-19 21:13:09Z

3

In bash, that would be with the readarray builtin:

readarray -t myarray < <(grep magic somefile.txt)

More generally, if you're using a loop to process text in a shell, chances are you're doing it wrong. Using shell arrays is often a sign that you need a proper programming language as well (or do the whole thing in awk).

edited Feb 19, 2021 at 21:13

Jeff Schaller♦

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answered Feb 19, 2021 at 18:57

Stéphane Chazelas

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