28 but it works. 

#         1         2       
#1234567890123456789012345678
 map/(^\s*[^:]*[^:\s])/,@list

[download]

Specifically, remove blank lines, and truncate each line at the first : (if present) and get rid of trailing whitespace after the xxxxx part (including the possible "\n".

Of all the solutions that were submitted, only this one and blokhead's (36) took into account that the 'xxxxxx' portion might itself contain whitespace. (Well, to be fair, busunsl's did too, but it didn't properly remove newlines. Update: So did Arien's as he kindly pointed out to me but his breaks by being too liberal in what it accepts/returns.)

This is what I used to test:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my @T = (
    '1 :yyyyy blah blah',
    '2 : yyyyy blah blah',
    '3 : ',
    '4 :',
    '5:yyyyy blah blah',
    '6: yyyyy blah blah',
    '7: ',
    '8:',
    ' : yyyyy blah blah',
    ' :yyyyy blah blah',
    ': yyyyy blah blah',
    ':yyyyy blah blah',
    '9 yyyyy blah blah',
    '10 yyyyy blah blah',
    '11 ',
    '12',
    ' : ',
    ' :',
    ': ',
    ':',
    ' ',
    '',
    '13 andmore:',
    '14 andmore : blah',
    ' 15 : foo',
    ' 16 andmore : foo',

);
@T = map {($_,$_."\n")} @T;

sub by { print "--- By @_ -------------\n"; }
my @list;

#                                                   1         2       
+  3
#                                          123456789012345678901234567
+8901234567
@list=@T;by 'sauoq';    print "($_)\n" for map/(^\s*[^:]*[^:\s])/,@lis
+t;
@list=@T;by 'blokhead'; print "($_)\n" for map{/([^:]*?)\s*(:|$)/;$1||
+()}@list;

# Broken
@list=@T;by 'busuns1';  print "($_)\n" for map{s/\s*(:.*|$)//;$_||()}@
+list;
@list=@T;by 'Arien';    print "($_)\n" for map/(.+?)\s*(?>:|$)/,@list;
@list=@T;by 'Arien';    print "($_)\n" for map/(.+?)\b\s*(?>:|$)/,@lis
+t;
@list=@T;by 'Aristotle';print "($_)\n" for map/^([^:\s]+)/,@list;
@list=@T;by 'Aristotle';print "($_)\n" for map/^\s*([^:\s]+)/,@list;
@list=@T;by 'blokhead'; print "($_)\n" for map{/([^:]*?)(\s*\n|\s*:)/&
+&$1}@list;
@list=@T;by 'blokhead'; print "($_)\n" for map{/([^:]*?)\s*(\n|:)/&&$1
+}@list;
@list=@T;by 'jmcnmara'; print "($_)\n" for map{(split)[0]}@list;
@list=@T;by 'CountZero';print "($_)\n" for map/(.*?)\s+:/,@list;

[download]

This is the output:

--- By sauoq -------------
(1)
(1)
(2)
(2)
(3)
(3)
(4)
(4)
(5)
(5)
(6)
(6)
(7)
(7)
(8)
(8)
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
(11)
(11)
(12)
(12)
(13 andmore)
(13 andmore)
(14 andmore)
(14 andmore)
( 15)
( 15)
( 16 andmore)
( 16 andmore)
--- By blokhead -------------
(1)
(1)
(2)
(2)
(3)
(3)
(4)
(4)
(5)
(5)
(6)
(6)
(7)
(7)
(8)
(8)
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
(11)
(11)
(12)
(12)
(13 andmore)
(13 andmore)
(14 andmore)
(14 andmore)
( 15)
( 15)
( 16 andmore)
( 16 andmore)
--- By busuns1 -------------
(1)
(1
)
(2)
(2
)
(3)
(3
)
(4)
(4
)
(5)
(5
)
(6)
(6
)
(7)
(7
)
(8)
(8
)
(
)
(
)
(
)
(
)
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
(11)
(11)
(12)
(12)
(
)
(
)
(
)
(
)
(13 andmore)
(13 andmore
)
(14 andmore)
(14 andmore
)
( 15)
( 15
)
( 16 andmore)
( 16 andmore
)
--- By Arien -------------
(1)
(1)
(2)
(2)
(3)
(3)
(4)
(4)
(5)
(5)
(6)
(6)
(7)
(7)
(8)
(8)
( )
( )
( )
( )
(: yyyyy blah blah)
(: yyyyy blah blah)
(:yyyyy blah blah)
(:yyyyy blah blah)
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
(11)
(11)
(12)
(12)
( )
( )
( )
( )
(:)
(:)
(:)
(:)
( )
( )
(13 andmore)
(13 andmore)
(14 andmore)
(14 andmore)
( 15)
( 15)
( 16 andmore)
( 16 andmore)
--- By Arien -------------
(1)
(1)
(2)
(2)
(3)
(3)
(4)
(4)
(5)
(5)
(6)
(6)
(7)
(7)
(8)
(8)
( : yyyyy blah blah)
( : yyyyy blah blah)
( :yyyyy blah blah)
( :yyyyy blah blah)
(: yyyyy blah blah)
(: yyyyy blah blah)
(:yyyyy blah blah)
(:yyyyy blah blah)
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
(11)
(11)
(12)
(12)
(13 andmore)
(13 andmore)
(14 andmore)
(14 andmore)
( 15)
( 15)
( 16 andmore)
( 16 andmore)
--- By Aristotle -------------
(1)
(1)
(2)
(2)
(3)
(3)
(4)
(4)
(5)
(5)
(6)
(6)
(7)
(7)
(8)
(8)
(9)
(9)
(10)
(10)
(11)
(11)
(12)
(12)
(13)
(13)
(14)
(14)
--- By Aristotle -------------
(1)
(1)
(2)
(2)
(3)
(3)
(4)
(4)
(5)
(5)
(6)
(6)
(7)
(7)
(8)
(8)
(9)
(9)
(10)
(10)
(11)
(11)
(12)
(12)
(13)
(13)
(14)
(14)
(15)
(15)
(16)
(16)
--- By blokhead -------------
(1)
(1)
(2)
(2)
(3)
(3)
(4)
(4)
(5)
(5)
(6)
(6)
(7)
(7)
(8)
(8)
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
()
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
()
(11)
()
(12)
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
(13 andmore)
(13 andmore)
(14 andmore)
(14 andmore)
( 15)
( 15)
( 16 andmore)
( 16 andmore)
--- By blokhead -------------
(1)
(1)
(2)
(2)
(3)
(3)
(4)
(4)
(5)
(5)
(6)
(6)
(7)
(7)
(8)
(8)
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
(9 yyyyy blah blah)
()
(10 yyyyy blah blah)
()
(11)
()
(12)
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
(13 andmore)
(13 andmore)
(14 andmore)
(14 andmore)
( 15)
( 15)
( 16 andmore)
( 16 andmore)
--- By jmcnmara -------------
(1)
(1)
(2)
(2)
(3)
(3)
(4)
(4)
(5:yyyyy)
(5:yyyyy)
(6:)
(6:)
(7:)
(7:)
(8:)
(8:)
(:)
(:)
(:yyyyy)
(:yyyyy)
(:)
(:)
(:yyyyy)
(:yyyyy)
(9)
(9)
(10)
(10)
(11)
(11)
(12)
(12)
(:)
(:)
(:)
(:)
(:)
(:)
(:)
(:)
(13)
(13)
(14)
(14)
(15)
(15)
(16)
(16)
--- By CountZero -------------
(1)
(1)
(2)
(2)
(3)
(3)
(4)
(4)
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
()
(14 andmore)
(14 andmore)
( 15)
( 15)
( 16 andmore)
( 16 andmore)

[download]
-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";

In reply to Re: golf anyone? (taking first field) by sauoq
in thread golf anyone? (taking first field) by John M. Dlugosz

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