my ($last_name, $first_name, $middle_initial) = ( $_ =~ /(\w+)\W*?(\w+)\s?(\w)?/) ;

##</code><code>##

sub parse_name {
    my ($last, $first, $mi) = ( $_[0] =~ /(\w+)\W*?(\w+)\s?(\w)?/) ;
    return [$first, $last, $mi];
}