perl -MData::Dumper -e'$_=" a b c"; print Dumper(split /\s+/, $_)'
$VAR1 = '';
$VAR2 = 'a';
$VAR3 = 'b';
$VAR4 = 'c';

##</code><code>##

perl -MData::Dumper -e' $_=" a b c"; print Dumper(split)'             
$VAR1 = 'a';
$VAR2 = 'b';
$VAR3 = 'c';