$ perl -e '@a = split //, 'abc'; print "@a"' a b c $ perl -e '@a = split / /x, 'abc'; print "@a"' a b c $ perl -e '@a = split / # /x, 'abc'; print "@a"' a b c $ perl -e '@a = split / (?#) /x, 'abc'; print "@a"' a b c