title: Create associative array in bash 3
body: <p>After thoroughly searching for a way to create an associative array in bash, I found that <code>declare -A array</code> will do the trick. But the problem is, it is only for bash version 4 and the bash version the server has in our system is 3.2.16.</p>
  
  <p>How can I achieve some sort of associative array-like hack in bash 3? The values will be passed to a script like</p>
  
  <pre><code>ARG=array[key];
  
  ./script.sh ${ARG}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>EDIT: I know that I can do this in awk, or other tools but strict bash is needed for the scenario I am trying to solve.</p>