Split string into an array in Bash

Question

In a Bash script I would like to split a line into pieces and store them in an array.

The line:

Paris, France, Europe

I would like

Answer 1

Here is a way without setting IFS:

string="1:2:3:4:5"
set -f                      # avoid globbing (expansion of *).
array=(${string//:/ })
for i in "${!array[@]}"
do
    echo "$i=>${array[i]}"
done

The idea is using string replacement:

${string//substring/replacement}

to replace all matches of $substring with white space and then using the substituted string to initialize a array:

(element1 element2 ... elementN)

Note: this answer makes use of the split+glob operator. Thus, to prevent expansion of some characters (such as *) it is a good idea to pause globbing for this script.