my $readline = "perl::monk";
 my ( $first, $second );

 # this will get the first item...
 ( $first, undef ) = split /::/, $readline, 2;

 # or the second one...
 ( undef, $second ) = split /::/, $readline, 2;
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Update: removed the type in the second rule... I need more coffee...

-- JaWi

"A chicken is an egg's way of producing more eggs."

Hi.

Why do two splits, when one would do?

my ($first, $second) = split /::/, $readline, 3;
[download]

or more simply

my (@fields) = split /::/, $readline;
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Cheers,

-- Dave :-)

---

$q=[split+qr,,,q,~swmi,.$,],+s.$.Em~w^,,.,s,.,$&&$$q[pos],eg,print

Agreed, but the original post asked for either the first or the second; so I assumed that was all he wanted... In fact, if you don't want to use the list assignment you could do it also like this:

 my $first = ( split /::/, $readline, 2 )[ 0 ];
[download]

Many, many ways of doing the same... And how I love it ;-)

-- JaWi

"A chicken is an egg's way of producing more eggs."

$_ = "foo::bar";

my ($head) = /^.*?::/;
my ($tail) = /::.*/;
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Makeshifts last the longest.

     $a = "word1:word2";
     ($firstword) = split(/::/,$a,2),shift;
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What's the shift for?

Makeshifts last the longest.