Split returns UPTO last non-blank field

IJKin has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

use strict;
my $tst_str = "1~2~3~4~5~~~~~~~~~~";
my @ray = split(/~/,$tst_str);
my $len = scalar(@ray);
print "len - $len\n";
[download]

I get 5 when I run this: Solaris, Perl 5.8.8 How can I get the TRUE number of fields?

Comment on Split returns UPTO last non-blank field Download Code

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Re: Split returns UPTO last non-blank field by Perlbotics (Archbishop) on Sep 28, 2011 at 20:55 UTC
Try changing `my @ray = split(/~/,$tst_str);` to `my @ray = split(/~/,$tst_str,-1);`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Split returns UPTO last non-blank field by Anonymous Monk on Sep 28, 2011 at 20:58 UTC
Common pitfall for split, so read split documentation :) `use strict; my $tst_str = "1~2~3~4~5~~~~~~~~~~"; my @ray = split(/~/,$tst_str,-1); my $len = scalar(@ray); print "len - $len\n"; __END__ len - 15` [download]	[reply] [d/l]