$var = [ split /:/, $_ ];
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means "make an anonymous array (an array reference) and insert into it the results of the split operation; then assign the reference to the variable $var".

More about split:

$_     = "Fracassus Cacus Eryx Anteus"; # see Acme::MetaSyntactic
$foo   = split;                         # '4'
$foo   = split /\s+/, $_;               # '4'
($foo)       = split /\s+/, $_;         # ('Fracassus')
($foo, $bar) = split /\s+/, $_;         # ('Fracassus', 'Cacus')
($foo, $bar) = split /\s+/, $_, 2;      # ('Fracassus', 'Cacus Eryx An
+teus')
($foo, $bar) = split /\s+/, $_, 1;      # ('Fracassus Cacus Eryx Anteu
+s', '')
($foo)       = split /\s+/, $_, 1;      # ('Fracassus')
($foo)       = (split /\s+/, $_,) [2];  # ('Eryx')
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It's odd that a split with LIMIT 1 behaves different when assigning to a list with a single or two variables; but it does. That's why I prefer to say

$foo = (split /\s+/, $_) [0];
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if I want just the first element of the resulting list. The (split)[0] thingy means "give me the element 0 of the list returned by split".

Thanks to BooK++ for Acme::MetaSyntactic

--shmem

update: added missing backslashes to /s+/ :~}

_($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo.  G°\        /
                              /\_¯/(q    /
----------------------------  \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."·
");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}