Making associative array based on another associative array

I made an associative array as follows. To give a few details, the keys refer to specific files because I will be using this array in the context of a larger script (where the directory containing the files will be a getopts argument). declare -A BAMREADS echo "BAMREADS array is initialized" BAMREADS[../data/file1.bam]=33285268 BAMREADS[../data/file2.bam]=28777698 BAMREADS[../data/file3.bam]=22388955 echo ${BAMREADS[@]} # Output: 22388955 33285268 28777698 echo ${!BAMREADS[@]} # Output: ../data/file1.bam ../data/file2.bam ../data/file3.bam So far, this array seems to behave as I expect. Now, I want to build another associative array based on this array. To be specific: my second array will have the same keys as my first one but I want to divide the values by a variable called $MIN. I am not sure which of the following strategies is best and I can't seem to make either work. **Strategy 1**: copy the array and modify the array? MIN=33285268 declare -A BRAMFRACS echo "BAMFRACS array is initialized" BAMFRACS=("${BAMREADS[@]}") echo ${BAMFRACS[@]} # Output: 22388955 33285268 28777698 echo ${!BAMFRACS[@]} # Output: 0 1 2 This is not what I want for the keys. Even if it works, I would then need to perform the operation I mentioned on all the values. **Stragegy 2**: build the second array when looping through the first. MIN=33285268 declare -A BRAMFRACS echo "BAMFRACS array is initialized" for i in $(ls $BAMFILES/*bam) do echo $i echo ${BAMREADS[$i]} BAMFRACS[$i] = ${BAMREADS[$i]} done echo ${BAMFRACS[@]} echo ${!BAMFRACS[@]} #When I run this, I get the following error which I am unsure how to solve: ../data/file1.bam 33285268 script.bash: line 108: BAMFRACS[../data/file1.bam]: No such file or directory ../data/file2.bam 28777698 script.bash: line 108: BAMFRACS[../data/file2.bam]: No such file or directory ../data/file3.bam 22388955 script.bash: line 108: BAMFRACS[../data/file3.bam]: No such file or directory Thanks