split(/(?<=\S)(?=\s)/);

##</code><code>##

$s="AAA    B   X Y Z  W\n";
@a=split(/(?<=\S)(?=\s)/, $s);
print length($s),":$s";
print join(":",length(join("",@a)),scalar(@a),"\n");
print join("\n",@a),"\n";

##</code><code>##

20:AAA    B   X Y Z  W
20:7:
AAA
    B
   X
 Y
 Z
  W