also will be handled here :
if key contains several macros (for example, key[

,

]), and description uses positional references (for example, description $1, $2), only hostname macro is resolved (ordering does not matter)

Confirmed in branches 1.8 (pre1.8.4), r16245.

Seems that those issues are no longer present in 1.8 (with a new trigger expr parser). Checked in rev 17280

richlv, please confirm and I will close the issue then.

mentioned case indeed seems to be fixed, but here's another one :

a[,`~!@#$%^&*()-_=+[\|;:'",<.>/?]

item with a key like that can be saved and results in an error again :

Incorrect usage of quotes. [,`~!@#$%^&*()-_=+[\|;:'",<.>/?]
(besides, the error message is printed 9 times. is there some redundancy somewhere ?)

I've localized the problem:

a['] can be saved
a["] cannot be saved
a["'] cannot be saved
a['"] gives described error.

a['"] - is wrong a key format and should not be allowed to save

Why? a['"] is a perfectly legal key.

My mistake, it is.

Error message about incorrect usage of quotes is removed - item description is parsed as expected.

the error seems to be gone in dev branch - leaving issue as is for code review

The problem will be fixed in ZBX-3503. Closing this issue

Again this problem in the versions 1.8.5rc1 and trunk, r18576.

although see https://support.zabbix.com/browse/ZBX-2012?focusedCommentId=38718&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel#action_38718 as for why this issue was closed (ZBX-3503 still isn't fixed, unfortunately)

Just additional info for "normal" Zabbix users:
After upgrade from 1.8.2 to 1.8.5 same error (Incorrect usage of quotes.) if you previously had a key like this:
system.run["{$OSQL} -d msdb -h-1 -Q \"SET NOCOUNT ON;select count(distinct hostname) from master.dbo.sysprocesses where loginame='ksiup'\""]
After removing leading and ending quotes it's OK, so that's not a big problem, but there was no error before update. (just info)