Yet another way: 
$_ = "ele1 ele2   ele3   ele4 ele5 ele6";
m/(\w+\s*){$ARGV[0]}/;
print $1;

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pass in a parameter to indicate which word you want. (you can eaily turn this into a function). This does not create an array and saves space, assuming the only thing you care is the nth.

In reply to Re: Capturing the nth word in a string by pg
in thread Capturing the nth word in a string by Roger

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