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

# group adjacent-identical-chars to array elements; OP wanted "elegant" rather than char-by-char like this

my $str = '011122xx3x344444';
my @new_arr;
my $last_seen = '';
my $found_char = '';
my $arr_element;

while ($str =~ /([A-Z,0-9])/ig) {
	$found_char = $1;
	if ( $last_seen =~ /$found_char/ ) {
		$arr_element .= $found_char;
	} else {
		if ($found_char ) {
			push @new_arr, $arr_element; 
		}
		$arr_element = $found_char;
		$last_seen = $found_char;
	}
next;
}

push @new_arr, $arr_element;

print Dumper @new_arr;<c>

<p>which outputs:</p>

<c>$VAR1 = '0';
$VAR2 = '111';
$VAR3 = '22';
$VAR4 = 'xx';
$VAR5 = '3';
$VAR6 = 'x';
$VAR7 = '3';
$VAR8 = '44444';