Bash expand variable in a variable

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Using eval is the classic solution, but bash has a better (more easily controlled, less blunderbuss-like) solution:

  • ${!colour}

The Bash (4.1) reference manual says:

If the first character of parameter is an exclamation point (!), a level of variable indirection
is introduced. Bash uses the value of the variable formed from the rest of parameter as
the name of the variable; this variable is then expanded and that value is used in the rest
of the substitution, rather than the value of parameter itself. This is known as indirect
expansion.

For example:

$ Green=$'\033[32;m'
$ echo "$Green" | odx
0x0000: 1B 5B 33 32 3B 6D 0A                              .[32;m.
0x0007:
$ colour=Green
$ echo $colour
Green
$ echo ${!colour} | odx
0x0000: 1B 5B 33 32 3B 6D 0A                              .[32;m.
0x0007:
$

(The odx command is very non-standard but simply dumps its data in a hex format with printable characters shown on the right. Since the plain echo didn’t show anything and I needed to see what was being echoed, I used an old friend I wrote about 24 years ago.)

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