Using arrays in a shell script -

i trying initialise array in shell script below

declare -a testarr=( 'a' 'b' )

also below

testarr=( 'a' 'b' )

but in both cases, following error

shell1.sh: 1: shell1.sh: syntax error: "(" unexpected

can please tell me reason above error?

since want use posix shell , posix shell not support arrays, can "emulate" array in way:

set -- 'a' 'b'

then have "array" available in posix shell ("$@") contains ($1) , b ($2).

and can pass array function, such as:

test() {     echo "$2" }  set -- 'a' 'b c' test "$@"

if need save array can use following function:

arrsave() {     local     i;         printf %s\\n "$i" | sed "s/'/'\\\\''/g;1s/^/'/;\$s/\$/' \\\\/"     done     echo " " }

and use in following way:

set -- 'a' 'b c'  # save array arr=$(arrsave "$@")  # restore array eval "set -- $arr"

Deter