title: How to split a tab-delimited string in bash script WITHOUT collapsing blanks?
body: <p>I have my string in <code>$LINE</code> and I want <code>$ITEMS</code> to be the array version of this, split on <em>single tabs</em> and <em>retaining blanks</em>. Here's where I'm at now:</p>
  
  <pre><code>IFS=$'\n' ITEMS=($(echo "$LINE" | tr "\t" "\n"))
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The issue here is that <code>IFS</code> is one-or-more so it gobbles up new-lines, tabs, whatever. I've tried a few other things based on other questions posted here but they assume that there will always be a value in all fields, never blank. And <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4622355/read-in-bash-on-tab-delimited-file-without-empty-fields-collapsing">the one that seems to hold the key</a> is far beyond me and operating on an entire file (I am just splitting a single string).</p>
  
  <p>My preference here is a pure-BASH solution.</p>