Re: [Help-bash] declare -i

[Dan Douglas]

On Thursday, May 10, 2012 09:56:22 AM Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 09:52:45AM -0400, Chet Ramey wrote:
> > Where does the man page say it's ok to use negative subscripts when
> > assigning arrays?
> 
> Second paragraph of "Arrays":
> 
>       An indexed array is created automatically if any variable is assigned
>       to using the syntax name[subscript]=value.  The subscript is treated
>       as an arithmetic expression that must evaluate to a number.  If
>       subscript evaluates to a number less than zero, it is used as an
>       offset from one greater than the array's maximum index (so a subcript
>       of -1 refers to the last element of the array).

I took this as meaning it applied generally too. It's a new enough feature 
everybody still recommends using the keys anyway... in the rare event someone 
has a legitimate need for the "last" element, such as using arrays as a 
"dequeue".
-- 
Dan Douglas