$ perl -MData::Dumper -e'
   $_="   56  1752.eps a b";
   print Dumper split;
'
$VAR1 = '56';
$VAR2 = '1752.eps';
$VAR3 = 'a';
$VAR4 = 'b';

$ perl -MData::Dumper -e'
   $_="   56  1752.eps a b";
   print Dumper split " ";
'
$VAR1 = '56';
$VAR2 = '1752.eps';
$VAR3 = 'a';
$VAR4 = 'b';

##</code><code>##

$ perl -MData::Dumper -e'
   $_="   56  1752.eps a b";
   print Dumper split " ", $_, 2;
'
$VAR1 = '56';
$VAR2 = '1752.eps a b';

$ perl -MData::Dumper -e'
   $_="   56  1752.eps a b";
   print Dumper split " ", $_, 3;
'
$VAR1 = '56';
$VAR2 = '1752.eps';
$VAR3 = 'a b';

##</code><code>##

for (@data) {
   my @a = (split)[0,1];
   my @a = (split " ", $_, 3)[0,1];
   my ($x, $y) = split(" ", $_, 3);
   my ($x, $y) = split;
   ...
}

##</code><code>##

   my ($x, $y) = /^\s*(\S+)\s+(\S+)/;