Shell Programming and Scripting

With a couple of exceptions, variables don't need to be quoted when they are assigned, only when they are expanded.

#!/bin/ksh
IFS="~"

There is an exception; the tilde does need to be quoted or it will expand to the user's home directory.

VAR1="1~2~3~4"

echo "$VAR1" | read a b c d
echo "$a $b $c $d"
echo "$a"

# Result
1 2 3 4
1

#!/bin/sh
IFS="~"
VAR1="1~2~3~4"

read a b c d <<EOF
$(echo "$VAR1")

read a b c d <<EOF
$VAR1

EOF
echo "$a $b $c $d"
echo "$a"

# Result
1 2 3 4
1

The only shell that doesn't execute the last element of a pipeline in a subshell is ksh; even pdksh executes it in a subshell.

I hardly ever use here documents. I would do this:

Code:

IFS='~'
VAR1=1~2~3~4
set -f
set -- $VAR1
a=$1 b=$2 c=$3 d=$4

It works in all shells.