Programming Perl, 4th Edition

split

split /PATTERN/, EXPR, LIMIT
split /PATTERN/, EXPR
split /PATTERN/
split

This function scans a string given by EXPR for separators, and splits the string into a list of substrings, returning the resulting list value in list context or the count of substrings in scalar context.^[249] The separators are determined by repeated pattern matching, using the regular expression given in PATTERN, so the separators may be of any size and need not be the same string on every match. (The separators are not ordinarily returned; exceptions are discussed later in this section.) If the PATTERN doesn’t match the string at all, split returns the original string as a single substring. If it matches once, you get two substrings, and so on. You may supply regular expression modifiers to the PATTERN, like /PATTERN/i, /PATTERN/x, etc. The //m modifier is assumed when you split on the pattern /^/.

If LIMIT is specified and positive, the function splits into no more than that many fields (though it may split into fewer if it runs out of separators). If LIMIT is negative, it is treated as if an arbitrarily large LIMIT has been specified. If LIMIT is omitted or zero, trailing null fields are stripped from the result (which potential users of pop would do well to remember). If EXPR is omitted, the function ...