Small followup I meant to type but didn't:

On Sat, Apr 13, 2024 at 1:19 PM Mark J. Reed <markjreed@gmail.com> wrote:

> redline *'\nddd=( "${(@f)aaa}" ) ... it seems like a lot of trouble to
> copy the array as it is.'*
>
>
> That comment confuses me; you aren't copying the array as it is at all!
> You've gone from *aaa, *which has one element, to *ddd *having 8
> elements. That's a far cry from "copying as it is".
>

If you want to copy an array as it is, this is all you need:

*fff=("${(@)aaa}")*


Or, if you prefer the POSIX syntax:

*fff=("${aaa[@]}")*


After either of the above assignments, *fff* is an exact copy of *aaa*,
including any empty elements.

(If there aren't any empty elements or you want to strip them, you can use
the even simpler *fff=($aaa)*.)
-- 
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@gmail.com>