Shell Programming and Scripting

$ VAR="a b c d"
$ printf "%s\n" 1 2 3 # Each argument on a different line

1
2
3

$ printf "%s\n" "$VAR" # IFS does not split here

a b c d

$ printf "%s\n" $VAR # IFS splits here

a
b
c
d

$

$ set -- a b c d
$ printf "%s\n" $*

a
b
c
d

$ printf "%s\n" "$*" # IFS is space, so $1 $2 ... get spaces between

a b c d

$ IFS="|"
$ printf "%s\n" "$*" # With IFS="|", it puts pipes instead

a|b|c|d

$ printf "%s\n" $* # ...but if a|b|c|d isn't quoted, will split it into arguments.

a
b
c
d

$

echo ""
IFS=$'/'
${val_xSrc:='-1.0/0/1.0'} # If val_xSrc is null or unset then it will be set to "-1.0/0/1.0".
unset IFS
echo "Using new method"
echo "val_xSrc = $val_xSrc"
xSrc1=${val_xSrc[$1]}  # default value 
xSrc2=${val_xSrc[$2]}  # default value
dxSrc=${val_xSrc[$3]}  # default value
echo "xsrc1 = $xSrc1"
echo "xsrc2 = $xSrc2"
echo "dxsrc = $dxSrc"
xSrcLen=${#val_xSrc[@]}
for (( i=0; i<${xSrcLen}; i++ ));
do
  echo "$i = ${val_xSrc[$i]}"
done
echo ""

# If variable is blank, set it
[ -z "$val_xSrc" ] && val_xSrc="-1.0/0/1.0"

# Prefixing a variable to a command sets that variable for only that line
IFS="/" read xSrc1 xSrc2 dxSrc <<EOF
${val_xSrc}
EOF

echo "xSrc1 = $xSrc1"
echo "xSrc2 = $xSrc2"
echo "dxSrc = $dxSrc"

IFS="/"; ary=(${val_xSrc:=-1.0/0/1.0}); unset IFS
xSrc1=${ary[0]}; xSrc2=${ary[1]}; dxSrc=${ary[2]}