Nope, that doesn't work. @{} dereferences an array ref; but split returns an array, not a reference.

The solution we are looking for here is $current_board[$x] = [ split('-',$current_board[$x]) ]; Similarly to [ ] that builds an anonymous array, { } builds an anonymous hash and returns a reference to it. Of interest: perlref/perlreftut (=references + ref tutorial), perldsc (= data structures cookbook) and perllol (= lists of lists).

Makeshifts last the longest.