The first two things that come to my mind: 
$_ = "some string with multiple words";
@first_three = (split)[0..2];
  # or
($first_three) = /^\s*(\S+\s+\S+\s+\S+)/;

[download]
You can probably adapt either of these to your purposes.

In reply to Re: How do I return the first n words of a string? by Fastolfe
in thread How do I return the first n words of a string? by d_brown3

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