bash-2.03$ cat test.pl #!/usr/bin/perl my $line = "hello\tworld\tI\tam\ta\tline\twithout\ttabs"; my $line_2 = "hello\tworld\tI\tam\ta\tline\twith\ttabs\t\t\t\t"; my @array = split("\t",$line,9999); my @array_2 = split("\t",$line_2,9999); my @array_3 = split("\t",$line_2); print "Scalar of array 1 =",scalar @array,"\n"; print "Scalar of array 2 =",scalar @array_2,"\n"; print "Scalar of array 3 =",scalar @array_3,"\n"; bash-2.03$ perl test.pl Scalar of array 1 =8 Scalar of array 2 =12 Scalar of array 3 =8 bash-2.03$