For some reason I'm unable to get expr to work with any parameters on strings that contain spaces. For example,


This works:
Code:
$ temp='Fantastic'
$ expr substr $temp 1 3
Fan

Whereas this doesn't:
Code:
$ temp='Fantastic work'
$ expr substr $temp 1 3
expr: syntax error
The only difference is the added space. This problem occurs for all parameters of expr, including the length parameter.
Suggestions welcome.