Here's an example:
#!/bin/bash IP=192.168.11.1 function split() { export IPARRAY IFS='.' read -ra IPARRAY < << "$1" for i in "${IPARRAY[@]}"; do echo process "$i" done } split $IP echo ${IPARRAY[*]} echo ${IPARRAY[0]}
Output:
process 192
process 168
process 11
process 1
192 168 11 1
192