#!/usr/bin/perl


use strict;
use warnings;

my $s="20050725";

##############
# with substr

my ($year, $month, $day) = ( substr($s, 0, 4), substr($s, 4, 2), substr($s, 6, 2));

print "gives : $year, $month, $day \n";

##############
# with a regexp 

($year, $month, $day) = $s =~ /(\d{4})(\d\d)(\d\d)/ ;
print "gives : $year, $month, $day \n" ;

##############
# with split and join

my @el=split '', $s;
($year, $month, $day)  =  ( join('', @el[0,1,2,3]), join('', @el[4,5]), join('', @el[6,7]) ) ;

print "gives : $year, $month, $day \n" ;

##############
# with shift

@el=split '', $s;

# zero the vars
$year=$month=$day=undef;

$year .= shift @el for 0..3;
$month .= shift @el for 0..1;
$day .= shift @el for 0..1;

print "gives : $year, $month, $day \n" ;