While I agree that arrays are usually not the thing you want in bash, in the end to me this just feels a bit like having to adapt the job to the tool instead of

While I agree that arrays are usually not the thing you want in bash, in the end to me this just feels a bit like having to adapt the job to the tool instead of being able to select the right tool for the job. Both of these principles have their place of course, but having to tell people something as common as an array is not really available in this widely used environment is like telling a carpenter to avoid nails or glue all together because this particular workshop only uses screws and an non-electric screwdriver. Perhaps not the most appropriate metaphore, but you get the point: mistakes will be made and time will be wasted. Because 'formatted stream of data' really means 'any tool can output a different arbitrarily formatted stream so if you need a field it is up to you to figure out how, every single time again because no-one can remember this for all possible tools anyway'.