Re: Question about associative array runtime assignment vs literal initialization

On Mon, Dec 22, 2025 at 18:04:22 +0100, Félix Hauri via Bug reports for the GNU Bourne Again SHell wrote:
> My solution is to use `%q` of printf and a temporary string:
>   $ kv=(one 1 two 2 "two and a half" 2.5 empty '' three 3)
>   $ printf -v tmpString '[%q]=%q ' "${kv[@]}"
>   $ declare -A "aa=($tmpString)"
>   $ declare -p aa
>   declare -A aa=([empty]="" [two]="2" ["two and a half"]="2.5" [three]="3" [one]="1" )

That seems to work, yes, though I only tested it briefly.

> I'm not sure how to correctly use @K for this!

Your solution begins with a list of alternating keys and values.  @K helps
when you're starting with an associative array instead of a list, and
you use it with eval:

    declare -A aa=( empty '' inject '$(date)' "space key" "space value" \
        lb \[ rb \] punc $' \t\n' )
    kvstring="${aa[*]@K}"
    eval "declare -A newarray=($kvstring)"

Here, you don't create a list of keys and values at all.  You go straight
from the associative array to a serialized string value.