--- /dev/null
+# from dan douglas
+expassign()
+{
+ typeset -a a
+ a=("$@")
+ typeset var asn
+
+ while IFS= read -r asn; do
+ IFS=: command eval "$asn"
+ printf '%-14s... %s\n' "$asn" "$var"
+ done <<\EOF
+var=${a[*]}
+var="${a[*]}"
+var=$*
+var="$*"
+var=${a[@]}
+var="${a[@]}"
+var=$@
+var="$@"
+EOF
+}
+
+expassign one:::two three:::four