#!/usr/bin/env bash array=("a c" b f "Change" "3 5") IFS=$'\n' sorted=($(sort <<<"${array[*]}")) echo "" echo "Print out array elemnts (for loop)" echo "==================================" for val in ${sorted[@]} ; do echo -e "\t$val" done echo "" echo "Print out array elemnts (printf)" echo "================================" printf "\t%s\n" "${sorted[@]}" echo "" exit