Difference Between $@ and $* in Bash Scripting

You can use the $@ and $* to get the positional parameters in Bash scripting. This article will explain the difference between the asterisk ($*) and at-sign ($@) in Bash scripting.

Difference Between Asterisk ($*) and At-Sign ($@) in Bash Scripting

The $* expression starts from one and expands to the positional parameters. If the expression is not used with double quotes, each positional parameter expands to a separate word.

#!/bin/bash 
for i in $*; do
    echo "* without quote -> $i"
done

If the expression is used with double quotes, the value of each parameter expands to a single word. The parameters are separated by the Internal Field Separator (IFS).

If the IFS is not defined, they are separated by a space. If it is set to null, the values are joined without intervening separators.

#!/bin/bash 
for i in "$*"; do
    echo "* with quote -> $i"
done

The $@ expression starts from one and expands to the positional parameters. If the expression is used with double quotes, each parameter expands to a separate word, but the parameters inside quotes are not split; that is, "$@" is equivalent to $1 $2 ….

#!/bin/bash 
for i in "$@"; do
    echo "@ with quote -> $i"
done

If the expression is used without double quotes, each parameter will expand into a separate word, including the parameters in quotes.

#!/bin/bash 
for i in $@; do
    echo "@ without quote -> $i"
done