Declare local variables and give them attributes. More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html#Bash-Builtins.
local variable="value"
local -i variable="value"
local variable=(item_a item_b item_c)
local -A variable=([key_a]=item_a [key_b]=item_b [key_c]=item_c)
local -r variable="value"