You can't. Subs return a single list. You could return references to those arrays, though.

sub breakEmailAddress
{
   my ($address) = shift(@_); 
   my @components = split('@', $address); 
   my @counter    = split('@', $address);
   return (\@components, \@counter);
}

my ($first, $second) = breakEmailAddress('john@some.domain.com');
print "FirstArr: @$first\n";
print "SecondArr: @$second\n";
[download]

Don't forget to use my on the arrays, or else you'll always return a reference to the same arrays. Using my forces the creation of new arrays every call.

I removed the & from your subroutine call. Why are you telling Perl to ignore prototypes?

Update: Alternatively, you can pass references to your arrays to the sub, and have it fill up the arrays instead of returning values:

sub breakEmailAddress
{
   my ($components, $counter, $address) = shift(@_); 
   @$components = split('@', $address); 
   @$counter    = split('@', $address);
}

# breakEmailAddress(my @first, my @second, 'john@some.domain.com'); XX
+X

my(@first,@second);
breakEmailAddress(\@first, \@second, 'john@some.domain.com');  # Fixed
+ thanks to shmem

print "FirstArr: @first\n";
print "SecondArr: @second\n";
[download]

Update: Applied shmem's fix.

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.