Lazy pro usage of bash associative arrays (dictionaries) 
This is an example on how to leverage dictionaries like contraptions in bash.
Tested on RHEL 7, Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04
#!/bin/bash
set -e
ASSOC_ARRAY_KEYS=("KEY1" "KEY2")
KEY1_VAL="VAL1"
KEY2_VAL="VAL2"
for ASSOC_ARRAY_KEY in ${ASSOC_ARRAY_KEYS[@]}; do
VAL_REF="${ASSOC_ARRAY_KEY}_VAL"
echo "${!VAL_REF}"
# it should print VAL1 and VAL2
# if you want to change the value of a certain key
NEW_VALUE_FOR_KEY1="VAL_NEW"
eval $VAL_REF=\"\$\{NEW_VALUE_FOR_KEY1\}\"
echo "${!VAL_REF}"
# it should print VAL_NEW
done
That's all, folks!
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