How to read array from delimited text

use readarray with -d option to read the delimited text as array in bash

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# User inputs
echo -n "Enter Number of elements: "
read -r no_of_elements
echo -n "Enter delimiter: "
read -r del
echo -n "Enter array elements as delimited text: "
readarray -n $no_of_elements -d $del elements
# Output
echo ""
echo "Array elements: "
for item in ${elements[@]};
do
        echo $item
done;

Output of the above snippet is,

$ ./test.sh
Enter Number of elements: 3
Enter delimiter: ,
Enter array elements as delimited text: 1,2,3,
Array elements:
1,
2,
3,

If we like to remove the delimiter captured as part of an array element we can pass -t option.

Note:

• -t must be passed before supplying the -d option.

  Eg, readarray -t -n $no_of_elements -d $del elements

• -d option uses the delimiter to parse and split the array elements. So, it is mandatory to pass the delimiter after the last element