Split, already mentioned, is the correct solution. It's possible to coerce qw// to work on a variable using stringy eval. Your unexpected behavior happens because qw , like q, does not interpolate variables before acting. You can fake it by including the 'qw' as part of a string in an interpolating quote,

my $all = "\nname1 name2\n   name3";
my @arr = someFunc(@dd, eval "qw/$all/";
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That's not a recommended way to do it, but it's good to know about. It's sometimes desirable to do that when the arguments of tr/// are not known in advance.