I can only guess which default behavior you want, b/c you didn't make it clear.

If you want repeated whitespaces to be ignored, then simply tell split to do so.

  DB<113> split ' ', 'abc  def'
 => ("abc", "def")

  DB<114> $del=qr/ /
 => qr/ /

  DB<115> split $del, 'abc  def'
 => ("abc", "", "def")

  DB<116> $del=qr/\s+/
 => qr/\s+/

  DB<117> split $del, 'abc  def'
 => ("abc", "def")

[download]

Cheers Rolf

( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)

update

split : 

               As a special case, specifying a PATTERN of space (' ') 
+will
               split on white space just as "split" with no arguments 
+does.
               Thus, "split(' ')" can be used to emulate awk’s default
               behavior, whereas "split(/ /)" will give you as many nu
+ll
               initial fields as there are leading spaces.  A "split" 
+on
               "/\s+/" is like a "split(' ')" except that any leading
               whitespace produces a null first field.  A "split" with
+ no
               arguments really does a "split(' ', $_)" internally.

[download]

In reply to Re: How to get split $var to work like split ' '? by LanX
in thread How to get split $var to work like split ' '? by QM

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