diff --git a/src/main/java/org/sentrysoftware/jawk/backend/AVM.java b/src/main/java/org/sentrysoftware/jawk/backend/AVM.java
index abaa1b2..0c47a89 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/sentrysoftware/jawk/backend/AVM.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/sentrysoftware/jawk/backend/AVM.java
@@ -1109,8 +1109,8 @@ public void interpret(AwkTuples tuples)
 						// ARRAY reference offset/is_global
 						long offset = position.intArg(0);
 						boolean is_global = position.boolArg(1);
-						String newString = execSubOrGSub(position, 2);
 						Object arr_idx = pop();
+						String newString = execSubOrGSub(position, 2);
 						// assign it to "offset/arr_idx/global"
 						assignArray(offset, arr_idx, newString, is_global);
 						pop();
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/sentrysoftware/jawk/AwkTest.java b/src/test/java/org/sentrysoftware/jawk/AwkTest.java
index 37e5e8c..a58e206 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/sentrysoftware/jawk/AwkTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/sentrysoftware/jawk/AwkTest.java
@@ -398,4 +398,13 @@ public void testPrintComparison() throws Exception {
 		);
 	}
 	
+	@Test
+	public void testGsubArray() throws Exception {
+		assertEquals(
+				"gsub on an array element must change the value of the element",
+				"abcd\n",
+				runAwk("BEGIN { a[1] = \"ab:cd\"; gsub(/:/, \"\", a[1]); print a[1]; }", null)
+		);
+	}
+	
 }