Your suggestion, and others, destroy the initial value. This might not matter, but if you want to keep your initial value use: 
($firstword) = $word =~ /^(.*?):/;

[download]
This leaves $word eq 'Here:\: => M:\p_sold-cr_q00457655_EFLT' and sets $firstword eq 'Here';

In reply to Re: matching in a line (without destruction) by BigLug
in thread matching in a line by splitOnce

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