if this is the output im dealing with: #:~/mocptest$ mocp -i State: PLAY File: /music/The Decemberists/The Crane Wife/07 Shankill Butchers.mp3 Title: 7 The Decemberists - Shankill Butchers (The Crane Wife) Artist: The Decemberists SongTitle: Shankill Butchers Album: The Crane Wife TotalTime: 04:40 TimeLeft: 04:37 TotalSec: 280 CurrentTime: 00:03 CurrentSec: 3 Bitrate: 192Kbps Rate: 44KHz is this the best / cleanest / fastest / cheapest (cpu wise) way of getting each line/field into its own var? #!/bin/bash O=$IFS IFS=$'\n' arr=($(mocp -i)) IFS=$O state=${arr[0]} file=${arr[1]} title=${arr[2]} artist=$[arr3]} songtitle=${arr[4]} album=${arr[5]} totaltime=${arr[6]} totalsec=${arr[7]} currenttime=${arr[8]} currentsec=${arr[8]} bitrate=${arr[9]} rate=${arr[10]