$ perl -E'say join ":", split "", "abc def"'
a:b:c: :d:e:f

$ perl -E'say join ":", split " ", "abc def"'
abc:def

##</code><code>##

my $dirs = `ls -d *`;
my @dirs = split ' ', $dirs;

##</code><code>##

chomp( my @dirs = `ls -d *` );