#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper qw(Dumper);

# Test cases:
my $string_a = "Joe Dolly"; # It should split and print JD.
my $string_b = "perl.pl";   # It should match on the regular expression and nothing prints.
my $string_c = "States";    # It should match on the regular expression and nothing prints.

my @got = $search_c =~ /^(?!\w)|(\.[^.]+)$/ig ? [] : split //, $string_c;

print Dumper $got[0];
print Dumper $got[1];