sub separate_data
{
  my( @important_data )= @_;
  my @important_results= split / /, @important_data;
  return @important_results;
}

## call it like
my @answer= separate_data( $data[$a] );

## or in a loop as:
for my $a ( 0..10 )
{
  my @answer= separate_data( $data[$a] );
}