The Bash shell makes it possible to create arrays: https://gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Arrays Dash shell currently does not have this feature. A workaround is to use ARGV: $ set aaa bbb ccc $ echo "$2" bbb However this is limited as only one array can exist at a time, while Bash allows multiple arrays to exist at a time: $ gg=(aaa bbb ccc) $ hh=(ddd eee fff) $ echo "${gg[1]} ${hh[1]}" bbb eee