On 10/24/16 7:32 PM, L. A. Walsh wrote: > I don't understand the ambiguity. If param= "#obj[@]", then it > is clear to me that the user wants the length of an array named "obj".
Stop there. In something like ${#obj[@]}, `param' is `obj[@]'. The `${#param}' is a clearly-defined word expansion, separate from the `[:]-' forms: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/V3_chap02.html#tag_18_06_02 That's what we're talking about here. -- ``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU c...@case.edu http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/