#!/usr/bin/perl -l

# http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=1173839

use strict;
use warnings;

my $equation = '979x + 87y - 8723z = 274320';

#my @parts = ($equation =~ /^(?:(.*?)([xyz]))+/i);

my @parts = grep defined, $equation =~ /(.*?)([xyz])|(.*?)=(.*)/gi;

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper \@parts;