my $string = "1234567890abcdefghijABCDEFGHIJK";
my $chars;
my $n = 2;

##</code><code>##

$chars = substr( $string, 0, $n );
substr( $string, 0, $n ) = "";

##</code><code>##

( $chars, $string ) = ( substr($string,0,$n), substr($string,$n) );

##</code><code>##

$chars = substr ($string, 0, $n, "");

##</code><code>##

$string = s/^(.{$n})(.*)$/$2/s;
$chars = $1;

##</code><code>##

($chars, $string) = split /^(.{$n})/, $string, 1;

##</code><code>##

($chars, $string) = $string =~ /^(.{$n})(.*)$/s;

##</code><code>##

( $chars, $string ) = unpack "a$n a@{[length($string)-$n]}", $string;