Looping over tuples in Bash

cleanest.sh

declare -a elems=(
    "a 1"
    "b 2"
    "c 3 word"
    "d 4"
)

for elem in "${elems[@]}"; do
    read -a strarr <<< "$elem"  # uses default whitespace IFS
    echo ${strarr[0]} ${strarr[1]} ${strarr[2]}
done

comma-ifs.sh

for elem in a,1 b,2 c,3,word d,4; do 
    IFS=',' read -a strarr <<< "${elem}"
    echo ${strarr[0]} ${strarr[1]} ${strarr[2]}
done

set-reset-ifs.sh

OLDIFS=$IFS; IFS=',';
for elem in a,1 b,2 c,3,word d,4; do 
    set -- $elem
    echo $1 $2 $3
done
IFS=$OLDIFS