I was in your same pitfall some years ago, then i learned to double check the the docs if something looks strange:
If LIMIT is omitted (or, equivalently, zero), then it is usually treat
+ed as if it were instead negative but with the exception that trailin
+g empty fields are stripped (empty leading fields are always preserve
+d);

[download]
The output you want can be obtained with a -1 LIMIT: 
perl -MData::Dumper -e "$str='foo:bar:'; ($x,@opt)=split /:/,$str,-1;p
+rint Dumper ($x,\@opt)"
$VAR1 = 'foo';
$VAR2 = [
          'bar',
          ''
        ];

[download]

HtH
L*
There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.

In reply to Re: Mystery interaction between split and gobbling arrays by Discipulus
in thread Mystery interaction between split and gobbling arrays by saintmike

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.