[ptdorf]

Sounds like a bash 3 issue.

$ bash --version

GNU bash, version 5.2.32(1)-release (aarch64-apple-darwin23.4.0)

$ declare -A aaa; aaa[a]=a; aaa[b]=bb; for i in ${!aaa[@]}; do echo "$i --> ${aaa[$i]}"; done

b --> bb

a --> a

[forgotpwd16]

To elaborate on this, macOS default bash is still stuck (assuming due to licensing) in v3.2.x (released in 2007). Bash got associative arrays in v4 (released in 2009).