If for some reason you'd want to avoid splitting or analyzing the entire input string as a whole, you might consider a solution like 
#!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;

my $n = shift;

my $text = 'A huge string                                    separated
+ by lots and lots of words that I\'d
like to break up into n shorter strings of length y';

while ($text) {
    $text = cut_head( $text, $n );
}

exit;

sub cut_head {
    my ($text, $wrap_length) = @_;

    my $actual_length = 0;

  WORD:
    while ($actual_length < $wrap_length and $actual_length < length($
+text) ) {
        my $index = get_next_word( $text, $actual_length, $wrap_length
+ );
        $actual_length ||= $index;
      last WORD if $index >= $wrap_length;
        $actual_length = $index;
        next WORD;
    }
    my $head = substr( $text, 0, $actual_length);
    my $tail = substr( $text, $actual_length );

    print "$head\n";
    return $tail;
}

[download]
Of course, depending on how exactly you'll want to deal with whitespace, some refining would be needed.

Just add the get_next_word sub and you're done.

In reply to Re: A Little String Help Please by Krambambuli
in thread A Little String Help Please by craigt

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