perl -wle '$n="";$f="abc";$n=split//,$f;print for @_'

##</code><code>##

perl -wle '$n=""; $f="abc"; $n=()=split//,$f; print for @_'

##</code><code>##

while(<>) {
    $n = split;
    warn "processing $n tokens\n";
    &process; # implicitly takes @_
}