Shell Programming and Scripting

#!/bin/ksh

echo "Enter input line"
read input_header

echo "Enter separator:"
read separator

IFS="$separator" read -A fields <<< "$input_header"

for ((i=0;i<${#fields[@]};i++)) ; do
  echo ${fields[$i]}
done

-bash-4.1$ ./test.ksh
Enter input line
test1,test2,test3
Enter separator:
,
test1
test2
test3
-bash-4.1$ ./test.ksh
Enter input line
test1 test2 test3
Enter separator:
   <- space
test1 test2 test3

./shscr
Enter input line
test1 test2 test3
Enter separator:
\                             # 1 escaped space here
test1
test2
test3