@a = $string =~/

(  #capture matches and put them into @a
        (?:\d+) | (?:"(?:.+?)")

)
/gx;


print Dumper \@a;


##</code><code>##



$VAR1 = [
          '1',
          '2',
          '3',
          '4',
          '"fine"',
          '"day"',
          '"today"'
        ];

##</code><code>##


@b = $string =~/

(?:    #don't capture matches

        (\d+) | (?:"(.+?)")   

#capture numbers and anything inside of quotes


)
/gx;

print Dumper \@b;


##</code><code>##

        
$VAR1 = [
          '1',
          undef,
          '2',
          undef,
          '3',
          undef,
          '4',
          undef,
          undef,
          'fine',
          undef,
          'day',
          undef,
          'today'
        ];

##</code><code>##



@c =


map {/.+/g}   #if it's an undef, it's NOT getting into that array ;)


$string =~/

(?:
        (\d+) | (?:"(.+?)")

)
/gx;

print Dumper \@c;

##</code><code>##

$VAR1 = [
          '1',
          '2',
          '3',
          '4',
          'fine',
          'day',
          'today'
        ];