Basically, qw() is the wrong construct in your second bit of code. qw() assumes that whatever is in the delimiters is text, not a variable. What you want is split. 

#replace
qw($a);
#with
my @words=split(/\s+/,$a);

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Later

In reply to Re: Split a string into individual words by pzbagel
in thread Split a string into individual words by fadingjava

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