Iterating arrays with elements containing spaces

Question

Given an array of two elements,

array=("foo bar" baz)

Using a for..in loop with the "normal" syntax yields three iterations (elements of the array are expanded).

for element in ${array[@]}
do echo $element
done

Output:

foo
bar
baz

While a for..in loop with the "index" syntax works as intended (elements are not expanded).

for i in ${!array[@]}
do echo ${array[i]}
done

Output:

foo bar
baz

Is there any way to use the first syntax construct as I intend (i.e. to get the same results as those I get using the second construct)?

GNU bash, version 4.1.2(1)-release

Answer 1

Quotes make the difference, so you need to update your code to the following:

for element in "${array[@]}"
do
   echo $element
done

Note

for element in "${array[@]}"
               ^           ^

instead of

for element in ${array[@]}

Test

$ array=("foo bar" baz)
$ for element in "${array[@]}"; do echo $element; done
foo bar
baz

Answer 2

Did you try:

for element in "${array[@]}"; do 
  echo "${element}"
done

The manual would tell:

IFS is a list of characters that separate fields; used when the shell splits words as part of expansion.

Doing:

IFS=$''
for element in ${array[@]}; do 
  echo "${element}"
done

would also give the expected result.