thank you very much, like this?

# check for name spaces

$spos = index($thestr,' ');
if($spos>=0) { $justmail = ''; } else { $justmail = 1; }

#
if($justmail ne 1){
# get name
$name = substr($thestr,0,$lbpos-14);

$_ = join q,,,map chr, 33 .. 126;
print "$_\n";
print substr($_, index($_,'first_name'),64),"\n";
__END__

# strip quotes
$name =~ s/\"//g;

$spos = index($name,' ');
if($spos>=0){
$fn = substr($name,0,$spos);
$ln = substr($name,$spos+1,length($name)-$spos-1);
} else {
$fn = $name; $ln = '';
}
}