c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le "my $t = 'x'; ;; for my $line (qw( 1212123x534534534534xx4545454x232322xx 0901001x876879878787xx0909918x212245xx 1212123x534534534534xx4545454x232323xx 1212133x534534534534xx4549454x232322xx 4352342xx23232xxx345545x45454x23232xxx )) { my $tokens = my ($first, @rest) = split $t, $line, -1; $tokens -= 1; print qq{'$line': num '$t' tokens is: $tokens}; dd ($first, \@rest); } " '1212123x534534534534xx4545454x232322xx': num 'x' tokens is: 6 (1212123, [534534534534, "", 4545454, 232322, "", ""]) '0901001x876879878787xx0909918x212245xx': num 'x' tokens is: 6 ("0901001", [876879878787, "", "0909918", 212245, "", ""]) '1212123x534534534534xx4545454x232323xx': num 'x' tokens is: 6 (1212123, [534534534534, "", 4545454, 232323, "", ""]) '1212133x534534534534xx4549454x232322xx': num 'x' tokens is: 6 (1212133, [534534534534, "", 4549454, 232322, "", ""]) '4352342xx23232xxx345545x45454x23232xxx': num 'x' tokens is: 10 ( 4352342, ["", 23232, "", "", 345545, 45454, 23232, "", "", ""], )