Inconsistent behavior of the test command with associative arrays

Inconsistent behavior of the test command with associative arrays

[limited time]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 469 bytes --]

% zsh -f
% typeset -A array=(key1 value1 key2 value2);
test $array[key1] ; echo $? ;
test $array[key2] ; echo $? ;
test $array[key3] ; echo $? ;
test $array[key4] ; echo $? ;
if test $array[key1] -a $array[key2] ; then
  echo "Condition evaluated to true" ;
fi                                             
if test $array[key3] -a $array[key4] ; then             
  echo "Condition evaluated to true" ;
fi
0
0
1
1
Condition evaluated to true
Condition evaluated to true

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1216 bytes --]

Re: Inconsistent behavior of the test command with associative arrays

[Bart Schaefer]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1058 bytes --]

This doesn't have anything to do with associative arrays and everything to
do with "test" and quoting.

On Wed, Apr 17, 2024 at 2:37 PM limited time <burnermail4now@gmail.com>
wrote:

> % zsh -f
> % typeset -A array=(key1 value1 key2 value2);
> test $array[key1] ; echo $? ;
> test $array[key2] ; echo $? ;
>

These two are "test somestring" which is defined as true.


> test $array[key3] ; echo $? ;
> test $array[key4] ; echo $? ;
>

These two are just "test" (with no arguments at all, because key3 and key4
have no value) which is defined as false.


> if test $array[key1] -a $array[key2] ; then
>   echo "Condition evaluated to true" ;
> fi
>

This is "test string -a string" which is true because neither string is
empty.


> if test $array[key3] -a $array[key4] ; then
>   echo "Condition evaluated to true" ;
> fi
>

This is "test -a" because both expansions are empty and not quoted so they
disappear from the command line entirely.

By definition, "test -a" is treated as "test somestring" and is true.

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 2549 bytes --]