Can parameter expansion be nested in Bash? [duplicate]

Answer 1

No, you can't. (You can in zsh, but not in bash, ksh or other shells.)

You need to use an intermediate variable:

foo=( 1 2 3 4 5 )
tmp=("${foo[@]/3/bar}")
echo "${tmp[@]:1}"

Answer 2

As far as I know, it is not possible to nest shell parameter expansion. I'm afraid you'll have to figure out another way of achieving what you need. If you post the code, maybe we can help you.