you can use this

($item6,  $item5, $item4, $item3, $item2, $item1) = split //, $number;
[download]

or this

($item6, $item5, $item4, $item3, $item2, $item1) = split '', $number;
[download]

but i suspect that what you need is an array, so you should do this

@items = split //, $number;
[download]

or if you want it the the reverse order

@items = reverse split //, $number;
[download]