my @source = ("John Ronald Reuel Tolkien","John Ronald S Tolkien","Trent Reznor","Barack Hussein Obama II","Barack Hussein II"); #note that the second item is wrong and should be discarded!
my @search = ("John Ronald Reuel T","Trent Reznor","Barack Hussein II","Barack Hussein Obama II","No match here");
##</code><code>##

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my @source = ("John Ronald Reuel Tolkien","John Ronald S Tolkien","Trent Reznor","Barack Hussein Obama II","Barack Hussein II");
my @search = ("John Ronald Reuel T","Trent Reznor","Barack Hussein II","Barack Hussein Obama II","No match here");

print "twonames\t\talternativesearch\n";
foreach my $s (@search){
    #gets first two names
    (my $twonames=$s)=~s/^(\w+ \w+).*$/$1/;

    #gets all other names, if they exist
    (my $others=$s)=~s/^(\w+ \w+)//;
    if ($others){
        #deletes initial space
        (my $alternativesearch=$others)=~s/^\s//;
        $alternativesearch=~s/\s/\|/g;
        print "$twonames\t\t$alternativesearch\n";
    }
    else {
        print "$twonames\t\tNO OTHER NAMES PRESENT\n";
    }
}
    #prints
    # twonames                alternativesearch
    # John Ronald             Reuel|T
    # Trent Reznor            NO OTHER NAMES PRESENT
    # Barack Hussein          II
    # Barack Hussein          Obama|II

##</code><code>##

# search                    source
# John Ronald Reuel T       John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
# Trent Reznor              Trent Reznor
# Barack Hussein Obama II   Barack Hussein Obama II
# No match here