Below is what I have done, I would like to improve it. How would a monk do it? Thanks, 
use strict;
my $newvar;
my $var = "123, abc; don't use (these)";

my(@var) = split /\s+/, $var;
foreach (@var) {
    s/\W//g;
    $newvar .= "$_ ";
}

print "VAR: $newvar";

#VAR: 123 abc dont use these

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In reply to How do I remove non-word chars but leave spaces intact? by Anonymous Monk

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