How's about: 
my ($y, $m, $d) = $today =~ /(\d){4}(\d){2}(\d){2}/;

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..although as a previous poster mentioned, you might lose a little in readability.

Now hiring in Atlanta. /msg moot for details.

In reply to Re: splitting a string into arbitrary lengths by moot
in thread splitting a string into arbitrary lengths by ryanc

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