my @apps = split ' ', $form{'AppName'};

##</code><code>##

$ perl -le'print 0+( @a =            qw( a b c ) )'
3

$ perl -le'print 0+( @a = split /\s+/, " a b c " )'
4

$ perl -le'print 0+( @a = split " ",   " a b c " )'
3