[Help-bash] What is the most efficient way to extract the first element of "address@hidden"?

[Peng Yu]

Hi,

I have to assign "address@hidden" to an array and then extract the first
element. If I understand it correctly, this will involve an extra copy
which may be slow for large arrays. Is there a syntax that allows the
direct extraction of the first element of "address@hidden"? Thanks.

$ x=()
$ x[10]=a
$ x[2]=b
$ i=("address@hidden")
$ echo "${i[0]}"
2

-- 
Regards,
Peng