The bash shell only supports single dimension arrays. Korn Shell 93 (ksh93), on the other hand, supports multidimensional arrays although this feature is poorly documented. Here is a simple example which demonstrates how to create and use a multidimensional array: #!/bin/ksh93 for i in 1 2 3 do for j in 4 5 6 do for k in 7 8 9 do array[$i][$j][$k]=$(( i + j + k )) # echo ${array[$i][$j][$k]} done done done for i in 1 2 3 do echo ${array[$i][4][7]} done It outputs: 12 13 14 Note – multidimensional associative arrays are not supported.