Re: Unsetting all elements of an associative array

[isabella parakiss]

On 2/4/15, konsolebox <konsolebox@gmail.com> wrote:
> Logically that should only unset the elements of an array and not the
> array variable
> itself since '*' or '@' is more of a wildcard that represents the
> indices.  However, bash
> does otherwise:
>
>   #define ALL_ELEMENT_SUB(c)    ((c) == '@' || (c) == '*')
>
> ...
>
>   if (ALL_ELEMENT_SUB (sub[0]) && sub[1] == 0)  // If substring is
> just '@' or '*'
>     {
>       unbind_variable (var->name);  // It just removes it.
>       return (0);
>     }
>
> Bash version is 4.3.33.
>

So, this is completely intended.
May I ask what's the rationale behind this design choice?
I find it very counterintuitive.