I thought there must be a quick solution, but I could only think of this: 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my $string = "a  'b c d'  e  f  'g h'";

my $tmp='';
my @result = ();
for (split /\s+/, $string) {
    if (/^'/) {
        $tmp = $_; next;
    }
    elsif (/'$/) {
        push @result, $tmp." $_"; $tmp=''; next;
    }
    elsif($tmp) {
        $tmp.=" $_";
    }
    else {
        push @result,$_;
    }
}
print join "\n", @result;

[download]

Of course, you could use the DBD::CSV module, setting the record delimiter to 'space' and the text quantifier to 'single quote' (spelled for clarity, not for actual use :)...

But my guess is that would be slower than a purpose designed parser for this very specific case.

.02

cLive ;-)

In reply to Re: split on spaces, except those within quotes? by cLive ;-)
in thread split on spaces, except those within quotes? by pg

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.