loops - bash How to declare and iterate over pairs of values where values may contain spaces (two dimensional array) -

1) declaration

i have pairs of, example, directories. pairs contain spaces (and/or other inconveniences periods or special chars. ext4 supports let say.)

'/foo/dolor sit/amet.elit'         '/bar/accumsan/luctus massa.nec' '/baz/sagittis. fusce/vitae.dolor' '/bam/nunc aliquetjusto.metus' 

i want write bash script these pairs hard-coded/constants.

i highly prefer declaring strings within delimiter or such not need arbitrary string preprocessed (eg don't want add escapes on literal whitespaces if possible)

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2) iteration

with declared pairs of strings, wish enter loop both strings available in 1 iteration separate variables, e.g. $left , $right.

likely uses being simple file operations copy, move, link, diff.

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notes:

• the "height" of array should allow many many pairs.
• if declaration , iteration can support wider-than-2 2d arrays please note how extend desired with.
• if bash has "array" specific datatype, use not mandatory question/answer. iterable 2-dimensional declaration , iteration sufficient.

you might use associative array (bash 4 or later):

declare -a arr arr['/foo/dolor sit/amet.elit']='/bar/accumsan/luctus massa.nec' arr['/baz/sagittis. fusce/vitae.dolor']='/bam/nunc aliquetjusto.metus'  left in "${!arr[@]}";     right=${arr["$left"]}     ... done