declare: -A: invalid option

Question

I'm getting this error declare: -A: invalid option while declaring the following map

declare -A ApiResourcePath_LambdaFunc_Map=( \
    [signup]="CreateUser" \
    [verify-user]="VerifyUser" \
    [login]="Login" \
    [change-password]="ChangePassword" \
    [forgot-password]="LostPassword" \
    [reset-password]="ResetPassword" \
    [refresh-token]="RefreshToken" \
)

I didn't find any syntax error here. Why I am getting this error ?

See also:[Bash 4 associative arrays: error “declare: -A: invalid option”](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6047648/bash-4-associative-arrays-error-declare-a-invalid-option). — John1024, Mar 05 '18 at 08:37
@John1024 Thanks John, you are absolutely right. I was running bash version 3 in macOS. bash 4 supports the above script but bash 3 doesn't. — Rafaf Tahsin, Mar 05 '18 at 08:47
This may also be helpful: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/111397/associative-arrays-in-shell-scripts — Kusalananda, Mar 05 '18 at 09:36

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 05 '18 at 09:13

7

Support for associative arrays was added to bash in version 4.0-alpha. For whatever reasons, macOS is still using bash 3.2. If you want to use associative arrays on macOS, one option is to install a modern bash using, for example, Homebrew.

For more on this and the work-around options for macOS users, see StackOverflow.

edited Mar 05 '18 at 09:13

Kusalananda

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answered Mar 05 '18 at 09:08

John1024

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The reason macOS is still using version 3.2 is because bash 4 is licensed under GPLv3, which Apple cannot use. For more -https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/193411/update-bash-to-version-4-0-on-osx – Rafaf Tahsin Mar 05 '18 at 09:46

declare: -A: invalid option

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