#!/bin/bash ORGS=() get_list_of_orgs () { orgs=$( grep -Po "\s+\[.*\]" | tr -d '[][]' ) for org in ${orgs}; do [[ "${ORGS[@]}" =~ "${org}" ]] || ORGS+=("${org}") done } get_list_of_orgs < 2017-09-20.log for (( i=0; i < ${#ORGS[@]}; i++)); do echo ${ORGS[$i]} done