@{ $aref } = split(/\D+/,"1,2xxx4:17");

##</code><code>##

$ perl -w -Mstrict -MData::Dumper -e 'my $x; @{$x} = split /\s/, "the one true"; print Dumper($x)'
$VAR1 = [
          'the',
          'one',
          'true'
        ];

##</code><code>##

$ perl -w -Mstrict -MData::Dumper -e 'my $x = {}; @{$x} = split /\s/, "the one true"; print Dumper($x)'
Not an ARRAY reference at -e line 1.