split(' ') can be used to emulate awk's default behavior (I think..)
You can try something like: 
my @cleanarray;
open(PH,"xcommand|") or die "Can't open xcommand: $!";
while (<PH>) {push @cleanarray, (split(' '))[0];}
close (PH);

[download]


/brother t0mas

In reply to RE: Help for awk/regex/newbie by t0mas
in thread Help for awk/regex/newbie by cmenser

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