#!/usr/bin/perl while ( ) { ($a,$b) = split ' '; print "split '$a','$b'\n"; my ($a,$b) = $_ =~ /(\S+)\s+(\S+)/; print "match '$a','$b'\n"; } __DATA__ none bing some bong any bang #### split 'none','bing' match 'none','bing' split 'some','bong' match 'some','bong' split 'any','bang' match 'any','bang'