#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $date_line = "Jan     2      ,       2009  \n";
my (@tokens) = split (/[\s,]+/, uc($date_line));
print "@tokens\n";
#prints JAN 2 2009

my $date_line2 = "2  jan      ,       2009  \n";
#to get 2nd thing in split, use a list slice...
my $month_text = (split (/[\s,]+/, uc($date_line2)))[1];
print "$month_text\n";
#prints JAN