If you only need up to the 6th column, you might try supplying the third argument to split so it will stop splitting after the 6th column. If you're on Unix or have unix tools, and you only need the one column, you might try using cut or awk:
open(FH, 'cut -d" " -c6 file|') or die $!;
# or open(FH, "awk '{print \$6}' file|") ...
while(<FH>) {
...
}
close FH or die $!; # Check close on pipe opens

# Also, you might try a regex which
# uses qr and only saves what you want
my $re = qr/(?:\S+\s+){5}(\S+)/;
...
while (<FH>) {
 next unless $_ =~ $re;
 my $field = $1;
...
}

[download]
Updated.

In reply to Re: What is the fastest way to extract data from a delimited string? by runrig
in thread What is the fastest way to extract data from a delimited string? by thezip

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.