You can split on the boundary where tags either start or end by using look-behind and -ahead assertions. That is, look for where a tag stops and text starts or where text stops and a tag starts. This script runs with the -l flag to save having to print newlines explicitly.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -l
#
use strict;
use warnings;

my $rxSplit = qr
   {(?x)
       (?<=[^<])
       (?=[<])
       |
       (?<=[>])
       (?=[^<])
   };

my $html =
   q{<tag ref=1>Start<tag ref=2>and more</tag>and end</tag>};

my @elems = split m{$rxSplit}, $html;

print for @elems;

[download]

And the output.

<tag ref=1>
Start
<tag ref=2>
and more
</tag>
and end
</tag>

[download]

I hope this is of use.

Cheers,

JohnGG

In reply to Re: Split tags and words nicely by johngg
in thread Split tags and words nicely by bwgoudey

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