What's happening is that "$x =~ /^(.{10)/" is matching the first ten characters, and copying them into $1 for future use. If you want to replace $x, you want one of 
$x =~ s/^(.{10}).*/$1/;
($x) = $x =~ /^(.{10})/;
$x = substr($x, 0, 10);
susbstr($x, 10) = '';

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Any of them work, so use whichever style you like most (personally, I think I prefer the last one).

In reply to Re^4: Pulling first 10 characters out of string? by Eimi Metamorphoumai
in thread Pulling first 10 characters out of string? by mav1c

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