Re: Is this a bug?

Perry Smith <[email protected]> Sun, 18 Jan 2026 10:08:41 -0600

Newsgroups	gmane.comp.shells.zsh.devel,gmane.comp.shells.zsh.user
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

On Jan 18, 2026, at 10:06, Perry Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Jan 18, 2026, at 09:59, Mikael Magnusson <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>> On Sun, Jan 18, 2026 at 4:39 PM Perry Smith <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> #!/bin/zsh
>>>> 
>>>> echo $ZSH_PATCHLEVEL
>>>> echo $ZSH_VERSION
>>>> A=( this is an arry of words )
>>>> echo "${#A}"
>>>> unset "A[-1]"
>>>> echo "${#A}"
>>> 
>>> Result:
>>> 
>>>> zsh-5.9-0-g73d3173
>>>> 5.9
>>>> 6
>>>> 6
>>> 
>>> I would expect the last echo to be only 5 instead of 6.
>>> 
>>> I’m writing a script.  I can easily cope with this but I thought I would mention it.
>> 
>> Unsetting a scalar sets it to the empty string, you probably rather want
>> A[-1]=()
> 
> Thank you!
> That works but from the manual I see:
> 
>>        To delete an element of an ordinary array, assign `()' to that element.
>>        To delete an element of an associative array, use the unset command:
>> 
>>               unset "name[exp]”

Sorry… I understand now.

pedz