% stephan@labaule (/home/stephan) % % cat rev.sh #!/bin/ksh93 function rev { nameref s=$1; typeset a=( $s ); integer n=${#a[*]} i; s=; n=n-1 for i in {$n..0}; do s+="${a[i]} "; done; s=${s%?} } s=" one two three four " rev s print "[$s]" % stephan@labaule (/home/stephan) % % ksh93 rev.sh [four three two one]