#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
#1159495

my $input = 'abcd| a a7-';

my ( $item, @display, $display, $out, );

my @deSpaced = split / /, $input;

for $item(@deSpaced) {

    if ($item =~ /(a).*\|/ ) {           # match first part of $input?
	    $out = '[' . $1 . ']';
        push @display, $out;
    }
	if ( $item =~ /(^a$)/ ) {               # match middle of $input?
	  	$out = '[' . $1 . ']';
        push @display, $out;

    } elsif ( $item =~ /(a[0-9]{1}).+/ ) {     # match last part of $input?
	  	$out = '[' . $1 . ']';
        push @display, $out;
	}
}

foreach my $saved(@display) {
    print $saved . ' ';
}

=head 


EXECUTION:  
C:\ PMonks\1159495.pl
[a] [a] [a7]
C:\

=cut