function init(b, a, i) { a[1] = "aardvark" a[2] = "animal" a[3] = "zebra" a[4] = "zoo" a[5] = "Iguana" a[6] = "Alligator" a[7] = "Nouns" a[8] = "people" for (i in a) b[IGNORECASE][i] = a[i] } BEGIN { for (IGNORECASE = 0; IGNORECASE < 2; IGNORECASE++) { init(b) n = asort(b[IGNORECASE]) for (i = 1; i <= n; i++) printf("b[%d][%d] = \"%s\"\n", IGNORECASE, i, b[IGNORECASE][i]) print "============" } IGNORECASE = 1 init(b) b[2][1] = "" n = asort(b[1], b[2]) for (i = 1; i <= n; i++) printf("b[2][%d] = \"%s\"\n", i, b[2][i]) }