Question

I tried to use variable inside an array variable, but its throwing error “bad substitution”. Thanks for helping.

Example:
./xxx.ksh 1

NAME1[0]="Zara"
NAME2[0]="Daisy"
if [ $1 -eq 1 ];
then
name=NAME1
echo "First Name: ${${name}[0]}"
else
name=NAME2
echo "Second Name: ${${name}[0]}"
fi

xxx.ksh: line 7: First Name: ${$name[0]}: bad substitution

Answer 1

Dynamic variable names are a huge hassle. Just use a better array key:

NAME[1,0]=Zara
NAME[2,0]=Daisy
set -- 2
echo ${NAME[$1,0]}     # => Daisy

Anyway, the bash way to achieve your goal is to use indirect expansion:

NAME1[0]=Zara; NAME2[0]=Daisy; set -- 1; name=NAME$1[0]
echo ${!name}          # => Zara