bash associative array where values are variables, print each value's variable name

Question

I have the following associative array.

var1="dog"
var2="cat"
var3="moose"

declare -A asar01=(
["one"]="$var1"
["two"]="$var2"
["three"]="$var3"
)

I want to loop through and print each values variable name. So only "var1", "var2" and "var3" will print. How can I accomplish this? I tried the following but it prints the actual scripts name. as the first variable output.

for i in "${!asar01[@]}";do
    echo "${!asar01[$i]}"
done

My example is trying to use the ${!variable} method to print the name but its not working. How can I accomplish this?

Answer 1

You are trying to use indirect expansion backwards. If you want to retain the variable name drop the $ from your associative array assignments

#!/bin/bash

var1="dog"
var2="cat"
var3="moose"

declare -A asar01=(
["one"]="var1"
["two"]="var2"
["three"]="var3"
)

for i in "${!asar01[@]}"; do
   printf 'Key is: %s\n' "$i"
   printf 'Var name is: %s\n' "${asar01[$i]}"
   printf 'Var value is: %s\n' "${!asar01[$i]}"
done