From the docs:
As a special case, specifying a PATTERN of space (' ') will split on white space just as "split" with no arguments does. Thus, "split(' ')" can be used to emulate awk's default behavior, whereas "split(/ /)" will give you as many null initial fields as there are leading spaces. A "split" on "/\s+/" is like a "split(' ')" except that any leading whitespace produces a null first field. A "split" with no arguments really does a "split(' ', $_)" internally.

So $delim is always interpreted as a pattern, even if it contains only a single space, because it is not the " " literal.

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

In reply to Re: Interesting issues with split function by Joost
in thread Interesting issues with split function by podian

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