Array contains a value

Return 0 if a nameref array contains the given value, otherwise 1.

18^th August 2026

array_contains() {
  local -n haystack=$1
  local needle=$2

  for i in "${haystack[@]}"; do
    if [[ $i == "${needle}" ]]; then
      return 0
    fi
  done

  return 1
}

Caveats

Needs Bash namerefs (Bash 4.3+). Pass the array name, not an expansion.