Home/ Questions/Q 392013
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-12T16:07:03+00:00

How to get the n th positional argument in Bash, where n is variable?

  • 0

How to get the nth positional argument in Bash, where n is variable?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Use Bash’s indirection feature:

    #!/bin/bash
n=3
echo ${!n}

    Running that file:

    $ ./ind apple banana cantaloupe dates

    Produces:

    cantaloupe

    Edit:

    You can also do array slicing:

    echo ${@:$n:1}

    but not array subscripts:

    echo ${@[n]}  #  WON'T WORK
    • 0