Assign multiword string to a bash array element -

my goal take first word string , assign bash array, firstword{i] , take rest of string , put array, rest[i] i integer counter.

i tried approach: (note: strictly speaking tmp debug)

correction: left indexes off string vars. should string[1] , string[2].

string[1]="one 2 3 four" string[2]="five 6 7 eight" # etc etc  ((i=0; < ${#string[@]}; i++ ))    set -- ${string[i]}    firstword[i]=$1      tmp="${*:2}"     rest[i]=$tmp    echo $tmp    echo ${rest[i]} done 

rest[i] turns out equal "two" buttmp equals "one tswo three"

so tried:

ifs=$'\n';  rest[i]="${*:2}"; ifs=$' '; 

no joy.

so, how accomplish task?

found answer. changed:

rest[i]=$tmp 

to

rest[i]="$tmp" 

and data read rest kept together.

i assume has bash , command line splitting , globbing data.