select Command Examples

Bash builtin construct for creating menus. More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html#index-select.

• Create a menu out of individual words:

select {{word}} in {{apple orange pear banana}}; do echo ${{word}}; done

• Create a menu from the output of another command:

select {{line}} in $({{command}}); do echo ${{line}}; done

• Specify the prompt string for select and create a menu for picking a file or folder from the current directory:

PS3="{{Select a file: }}"; select {{file}} in *; do echo ${{file}}; done

• Create a menu from a Bash array:

{{fruits}}=({{apple orange pear banana}}); select {{word}} in ${{{fruits[@]}}}; do echo ${{word}}; done