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I am having problem in sending bash array problem_list to python script update_contest.py. Here is my code :

bash file :

echo $problems
declare -a problem_list
for i in $problems;
do
    problem_list+=($i)
done
echo ${problem_list[@]}
python3 update_contest.py $id ${problem_list[@]}

python file:

id = (sys.argv)[1]
problem_list = (sys.argv)[2]
print(problem_list)

output in terminal :

A B C D E
A B C D E
A

As can be seen, only A is passed as argument in problem_list.

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

You are indexing the list of arguments with 2, so only returning its second element, which is the first argument.

Replace this line problem_list = (sys.argv)[2] with problem_list = sys.argv[2:-1].

https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys.html

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2
  • Thanks a lot ! it worked. Actually I thought I need to send array as single argument. But, this approach also worked.
    – Pratik Kale
    May 18, 2019 at 5:38
  • @PratikKale You can't pass any real data structure as an argument to a unix program; the arguments are just strings, so to "pass an array" you turn it into a list of strings and pass each of those strings as a separate argument. BTW, the safe way to do this is "${problem_list[@]}" -- the double-quotes prevent the shell from trying to parse the array elements, and mangling them in the process. Putting double-quotes around variable references in the shell is almost always a good idea.
    – Gordon Davisson
    May 18, 2019 at 7:26

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