Consider the array typeset -A b b=("a b c" d) The following correctly expands to "d" ${b[a b c]} but this results in a "bad subscript" error: $b[a b c] I can't seem to find anything in the man page about why this would be the case. It seems to be a parsing error, since using a separate parameter to store the key works fine as well: z="a b c" print $b[$z] -- Clint Hepner clint.hepner@gmail.com