There's no need to split in so many parts. The next will reduce the amount of work actually done: 
(undef, my $foo) = split /:/;

[download]
as it will split into 3 parts, throwing away the first (leading) and third (rest) parts. Compare: 
$foo = (split/:/)[1];

[download]
will split into as many parts as there are columns. So will 
@data = split/:/; $foo = $data[1];

[download]

Do you insist on a regex? I don't know if anybody gave you one already, as everybody seems to be focussing on split... Here is one: 

($foo) = /:(.*?):/;

[download]
Note that your requirement makes this easy... making me feel like this is homework. If you wanted another column, like the fourth one, the regex would look really messy.

In reply to Re: regex needed by bart
in thread regex needed by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.