$this_word =~ s/[[:punct:]]//g;

The only problem with that approach is that it removes internal punctuation (ie apostrophes) as well, so that I'll becomes ill, she'd becomes shed, etc. ('Why was Virgina Woolf so obsessed with sheds?' I hear someone ask.)

I'd use this instead:

$this_word =~ s/^[[:punct:]]+//; # Remove leading punct.
$this_word =~ s/[[:punct:]]+$//; # Remove trailing punct.

[download]

Update: added Virginia Woolf sentence.

In reply to Re^7: putting text into array word by word by Not_a_Number
in thread putting text into array word by word by jms53

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