Modern Bash (a.k.a. the bash you get with Linux but not with OS X) even has associative arrays similar to what you would call a dict in Python or a hash in Perl

Modern Bash (a.k.a. the bash you get with Linux but not with OS X) even has associative arrays similar to what you would call a dict in Python or a hash in Perl. $ declare -A capitals $ capitals["Illinois"]="Springfield" $ capitals["California"]="Sacramento" $ echo ${capitals["California"]} Sacramento $ echo ${capitals["Illinois"]} Springfield $ for k in ${!capitals[@]} ; do > echo "The capital of $k is ${capitals[$k]}" > done The capital of Illinois is Springfield The capital of California is Sacramento