Trying to split a string into two variables

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This is a bug in Bash 4.2. See chepner’s answer for a proper explanation.

It is about quotes. Use:

IFS=':' read var1 var2 <<< "$var"
                           ^    ^

instead of

IFS=':' read var1 var2 <<< $var

See result:

$ IFS=':' read var1 var2 <<< "$var"
$ echo "var1=$var1, var2=$var2"
var1=hello, var2=world

But

$ IFS=':' read var1 var2 <<< $var
$ echo "var1=$var1, var2=$var2"
var1=hello world, var2=

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