I don't see the need for this. 
use Text::ParseWords;
$str = "a       b               c";
@f = split /\t/, $str;
print scalar @f, "\n";
@f = parse_line('\t', 0, $str);
print scalar @f, "\n";

[download]
output: 
[root@localhost root]# perl temp.pl
4
4

[download]
Both parse_line and split handle the null field.

In reply to Re: small change - evil consequences? by menolly
in thread small change to Text::ParseWords - evil consequences? by selena

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