use a variable as a variable

I'd like to use a variable variablenaam for using in a loop. I tried for hours but can't make it work. My experiment in bash on a RPi 4 with the latest Raspbian. I like to make the use of xstack1 and xstack2 variable so i can use them in a loop. Example below has two stacks I like to use in a loop so I have to make the variable xstack variable. clear xstack1=( domoticz dashboard dashticz nodered ) xstack2=( x y z ) printf "Original value xstack1[*]= ${xstack1[*]}" # this gives all the entries of x, this must be the result at the end by choose for xstack1 = q=1 printf "\n\n Lets Start, try to make xstack variable" q=1 # we want tot retrieve all values of xstack1 qq=$(eval "echo xstack${q}") printf "\nvariablenaame of xstack1 = $qq" # so far so good printf "\n" qqq=$(eval "echo $qq[*]") #now add the all parameter printf "\nvariablenaam with wildcard must do show all values but dont= $qqq" #only one value printf "\n\n" qqqq=$(eval "echo \$$qqq") printf "last try and does not work, i only get one value= ${qqqq}\n" This is The code where i want to use it. you see for similar block with stack1-4 and i think this can be one block with a variable name for xstack1-4. This xstack is a array and i think that gives the problem. These blocks are working perfectly, but not written perfectly :-) local t_maxkolom=9 local t_mitem=1 local t_stack=0 while [ $t_stack -lt $t_maxkolom ] do local t_gitem=0 local t_sp='%31s' if [ -z "${stack1[$t_stack]}" ]; then printf $t_sp && printf "${normal}"; else printf "${number} $((t_mitem + $t_gitem )))${normal} Toevoegen " && printf '%-16s' "${stack1[$t_stack]}" && printf "${normal}" fi local t_sp='%32s' local t_gitem=$((t_gitem + 10)) if [ -z "${stack2[$t_stack]}" ]; then printf $t_sp && printf "${normal}"; else printf "${number} $((t_mitem + $t_gitem )))${normal} Toevoegen " && printf '%-16s' "${stack2[$t_stack]}" && printf "${normal}" fi local t_sp='%32s' local t_gitem=$((t_gitem + 10)) if [ -z "${stack3[$t_stack]}" ]; then printf $t_sp && printf "${normal}"; else printf "${number} $((t_mitem + $t_gitem )))${normal} Toevoegen " && printf '%-16s' "${stack3[$t_stack]}" && printf "${normal}" fi local t_sp='%32s' local t_gitem=$((t_gitem + 10)) if [ -z "${stack4[$t_stack]}" ]; then printf $t_sp && printf "${normal}\n"; else printf "${number} $((t_mitem + $t_gitem )))${normal} Toevoegen " && printf '%-16s' "${stack4[$t_stack]}" && printf "${normal}" printf "\n" fi t_stack=$(( $t_stack + 1 )) t_mitem=$((t_mitem + 1)) done With this code I generate the menu items for my docker app