Effect of flattening vector expansions in assignments.

bash 4.2

4.2.45(1)-release

var=${a[*]}   ... one   two three   four
var="${a[*]}" ... one:::two:three:::four
var=$*        ... one:::two:three:::four
var="$*"      ... one:::two:three:::four
var=${a[@]}   ... one   two three   four
var="${a[@]}" ... one:::two three:::four
var=$@        ... one   two three   four
var="$@"      ... one:::two three:::four

bash 4.3

4.3.0(1)-beta

var=${a[*]}   ... one:::two:three:::four
var="${a[*]}" ... one:::two:three:::four
var=$*        ... one:::two:three:::four
var="$*"      ... one:::two:three:::four
var=${a[@]}   ... one:::two three:::four
var="${a[@]}" ... one:::two three:::four
var=$@        ... one:::two three:::four
var="$@"      ... one:::two three:::four

expassign.bash

#!/usr/bin/env bash

function expassign {
	set -f
	typeset -a a
	a+=("$@")
	typeset var asn IFS=

	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
}

${ZSH_VERSION+:} false && emulate ksh
expassign one:::two three:::four

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