bashOfGaps: Bash extension for nested arrays and json parsing

Warning: Very incomplete documentation.

1. Trying out

For the time being, you may run ./test.sh which will run all the existing unit tests.

2. ArrayList and hashTable

The project currently implements most of the functionality needed for a nestable arrayList and hashTable.

arrayList example:

[ 1, "hello", 454, -4, "something" ]

An arrayList also often called a "vector".

hashtable example:

{ "id":12, "name":"John Doe", "birthdate":"12-JAN-2001" }

A hashtable is often also called a "map" or an "object" (in javascript) or an associative array (in php).

3. Why this project?

Bash implements arrayLists and hashTables. However, you cannot nest them. For example, out of the box, this structure cannot be stored in Bash:

x = { "id":12, "name":"John Doe", "birthdate":"12-JAN-2001", 
	"orders":[ {"id":343, "date":"1-JAN-2015"}, {"id":675, "date":"2-MAR-2016"}] 
}

4. Automating the solution

Of course, there is a trivial workaround:

x = { "id":12, "name":"John Doe", "birthdate":"12-JAN-2001", "orders": "_arrayList_12232_8989_" }

_arrayList_12232_8989_ = [ {"id":343, "date":"1-JAN-2015"}, {"id":675, "date":"2-MAR-2016"}]

By looking at the key "orders", we can see that it possibly refers to an arraylist ("_arrayList_12232_8989_"). If this variable also really exists, then it is an embedded arrayList.

5. Classes in the project

dataStructure contain the functions common to both arrayList and hashTable
arrayList contains the arrayList functions
hashTable contains the hashTable functions
util contains a few utility functions

6. Current state of the project

Most functions have been implemented already, except for clone, remove(key) and delete (object).

The purpose is to use it to parse json files and be able to process them in bash.

7. Existing file structure

The current structure of the files looks like this:

	bashOfGaps $ tree .
	.
	├── dataStructure.sh
	├── lib
	│   ├── arrayList.sh
	│   ├── dataStructure.sh
	│   ├── hashMap.sh
	│   └── util.sh
	├── LICENSE
	├── README.md
	├── test
	│   ├── arrayList
	│   │   ├── arrayList.append.sh
	│   │   ├── arrayList.copyFrom.sh
	│   │   ├── arrayList.embed.sh
	│   │   ├── arrayList.get.sh
	│   │   ├── arrayList.keys.sh
	│   │   ├── arrayList.new.dump.sh
	│   │   ├── arrayList.set.sh
	│   │   └── arrayList.size.sh
	│   ├── dataStructure
	│   │   ├── computeNewName.sh
	│   │   ├── _dump.sh
	│   │   ├── isArrayList.sh
	│   │   ├── isBashArrayList.sh
	│   │   ├── isBashHashMap.sh
	│   │   ├── isDataStructure.sh
	│   │   ├── isDeclaredAs.sh
	│   │   ├── isHashMap.sh
	│   │   ├── isValidName.sh
	│   │   └── _keys.sh
	│   ├── hashMap
	│   │   ├── hashMap.copyFrom.sh
	│   │   ├── hashMap.embed.sh
	│   │   ├── hashMap.get.sh
	│   │   ├── hashMap.keys.sh
	│   │   ├── hashMap.new.dump.sh
	│   │   ├── hashMap.set.sh
	│   │   └── hashMap.size.sh
	│   └── util
	│       ├── derefKey.sh
	│       ├── deref.sh
	│       ├── empty.sh
	│       ├── isset.sh
	│       ├── map.sh
	│       ├── obliviousInput.sh
	│       ├── regexEscape.sh
	│       ├── required.sh
	│       ├── sortList.sh
	│       └── trim.sh
	├── test.sh
	└── todo.txt

	6 directories, 45 files

eriksank / bashOfGaps