#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

my @array = split(/\,/, 'nick,1,2,,56,88');
print Dumper \@array, scalar @array;

__END__

$ perl sample.pl
$VAR1 = [
          'nick',
          '1',
          '2',
          '',
          '56',
          '88'
        ];
$VAR2 = 6;