Well since no one mentioned the word boundary method, I submit the following: 
#!/usr/bin/perl

$sentence= $a= "I sit here and think-  
    what the-hell am  
    i doing with perl?";

@segments = split(/\b$word\b/, $sentence);
#@segments = grep { $_ ne '' } @segments; #remove undef elements 
@segments = grep { $_ ne ' ' } @segments; #remove space elements 

#print "$#segments\n"; 
print "$sentence\n";

$"="\n";
print "@segments\n";

[download]
I don't know the best way of getting rid of the newlines. Output: 
I
sit
here
and
think
- 
    
what
the
-
hell
am
 
    
i
doing
with
perl
?

[download]

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

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.