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Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2006 15:00:25 -0500
From: "Larry P. Schrof" <larry@schrof.net>
To: zsh-users@sunsite.dk
Subject: Question on array processing.
Message-ID: <20061004200025.GA3092@lucien.blight.com>
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There is a subscript flag, s:<string> , (used with the 'w' flag) that
allows you to index into a string as if it were an array, using
<string> as a separator for elements.

Here's my question:

I absolutely can NOT figure out how to get zsh to use a single colon (':')
as a separator. No matter how I try to quote the second colon, zsh sees the
second colon in the expression as the termination for the separator string.

I'm tring to do something like:

> str="these:are:some:words"
> echo ${str[(ws:::)2]}
zsh: bad math expression: operand expected at `::)2'

I've also tried :":":, :\::, and :':': - none of those work.

Is this a small flaw / hole in zsh's functionality?

Thanks.
- Larry