# problems with word splitting unquoted here-strings present since bash-3.2

x="foo        bar"
cat <<< $x     # Word-splitting appears to collapse the run of whitespace
cat <<< "$x"  # Whitespace preserved, as with here doc

x="qux:::::bax"
IFS=':'
cat <<< $x     # Word-splitting appears to collapse the run of whitespace
cat <<< "$x"  # Whitespace preserved, as with here doc