Please consider defining what you want. Usually, once you give a good definition instead of a single example, it's easy to write a regex. By just giving a example, you run the risk you get 10 replies, all different. All will match your example, and all will fail on the other 1000 matches you need to perform. Some examples of regex that will match your example:

    /^(.{5})/
    /(gedit)/
    /(\w+)/
    /([^-]+)/
    /(.\w{3}.)/
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That's the danger of describing your problem with only a single example.

Abigail

Boy oh boy...

$name = (split/-\d/,$string)[0];
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Just never use it on anything that starts with -\d.

antirice    
The first rule of Perl club is - use Perl
The ith rule of Perl club is - follow rule i - 1 for i > 1

Question:
Could it be that

($name) = split /-\d/,$string,2;
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is more efficient regarding time and/or memory than your solution?

Just wonder because I thought that this will just split into two array elements, thus saving some memory (maybe) but at least some time.

Yes, it is.

Benchmark: running mine, yours for at least 3 CPU seconds...
      mine:  3 wallclock secs ( 3.03 usr +  0.00 sys =  3.03 CPU) @ 27
+8704.16/s (n=844822)
     yours:  3 wallclock secs ( 3.13 usr +  0.00 sys =  3.13 CPU) @ 34
+5612.45/s (n=1082739)
          Rate  mine yours
mine  278704/s    --  -19%
yours 345612/s   24%    --
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antirice    
The first rule of Perl club is - use Perl
The ith rule of Perl club is - follow rule i - 1 for i > 1