Thanks friedo and bgreenlee for the replies. I will check the xSV. I was hoping there would be something that's analogous to split itself. Like:
(@col_1, @col_2, @col_3) = quasi_split /:/, foo
*sigh* The problem is I have *lots* of files and each with hundreds of lines. If there is no such feature, may be I can risk asking for a feature request? I don't the internals, so I am not sure if I would be blasted for such a request...

In reply to Re^2: Vertical split (ala cut -d:) of a file by qhayaal
in thread Vertical split (ala cut -d:) of a file by qhayaal

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