If you are dead set against split and a regex you could use index and substr.

use strict;
use warnings;

use Data::Dumper;

my @shapeLines = (
   q{SHAPES GREEN1;SIZE 240 500 340 930;SIZE 350 500 240 590;SIZE 295 
+390 015 490;SIZE 350 210 760 300;SHAPES GREEN2;SIZE 450 310 680 690;S
+IZE 450 110 680 490;SIZE 215 800 560 900;},
   q{SHAPES GREEN;SIZE 240 500 340 930;SIZE 350 500 240 590;SIZE 295 3
+90 015 490;SIZE 350 210 760 300;SHAPES BLUE;SIZE 450 310 680 690;SIZE
+ 450 110 680 490;SIZE 215 800 560 900;},
   );

my @shapes = ();

foreach my $shapeLine ( @shapeLines )
{
    my @posns = ();
    my $posn  = -1;
    while ( ( $posn = index( $shapeLine, q{SHAPES}, $posn ) ) > -1 )
    {
        push @posns, $posn;
        $posn ++;
    }
    foreach my $posnIdx ( 0 .. $#posns )
    {
        push
           @shapes,
           substr
              $shapeLine,
              $posns[ $posnIdx ],
              $posnIdx == $#posns
              ? length( $shapeLine ) - $posns[ $posnIdx ]
              : $posns[ $posnIdx + 1 ] - $posns[ $posnIdx ];
    }
}

print Data::Dumper->Dumpxs( [ \ @shapes ], [ qw{ *shapes } ] )

[download]
$ ./spw805781
@shapes = (
            'SHAPES GREEN1;SIZE 240 500 340 930;SIZE 350 500 240 590;S
+IZE 295 390 015 490;SIZE 350 210 760 300;',
            'SHAPES GREEN2;SIZE 450 310 680 690;SIZE 450 110 680 490;S
+IZE 215 800 560 900;',
            'SHAPES GREEN;SIZE 240 500 340 930;SIZE 350 500 240 590;SI
+ZE 295 390 015 490;SIZE 350 210 760 300;',
            'SHAPES BLUE;SIZE 450 310 680 690;SIZE 450 110 680 490;SIZ
+E 215 800 560 900;'
          );
$

[download]

I hope this is helpful.

Cheers,

JohnGG

In reply to Re: splitting line without split by johngg
in thread splitting line without split by garbage777

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • 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! —
  • 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:
    & &amp;
    < &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.