I'd be inclined to do it like this:

my $string = 'one two "three" four "five" six';
my(@quot, @unquot);
while ($string =~ m{
  \G
  (?:
    ([^\s"]+)    # $1: unquoted string, never empty
  |
    " ([^"]*) "  # $2: quoted string, maybe empty
  )
  \s*  # consume the separating whitespace
}xgc) {
  if (defined $1) {
    push @unquot, $1;
  } else {
    push @quot, $2;
  }
}
unless (pos($string) == length($string)) {
  warn "Couldn't parse string - maybe the quotes are mismatched\n";
}
print "quoted strings: @quot\n";
print "unquoted strings: @unquot\n";

[download]

This keeps the parsing in one place, so you can easily (for example) extend the matching to allow backslash-escaped quotes inside the quoted strings.

Hugo

In reply to Re: separated quoted stings from unquoted strings by hv
in thread separated quoted stings from unquoted strings by Cody Pendant

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