split /PATTERN/,EXPR,LIMIT split /PATTERN/,EXPR split /PATTERN/ split Splits the string EXPR into a list of strings and returns that list. By default, empty leading fields are preserved, and empty trailing ones are deleted. (If all fields are empty, they are considered to be trailing.) In scalar context, returns the number of fields found. .... #### #!/usr/bin/perl use 5.014; # 1007352 # error here: $word = split "", $lines; my $lines = "foo bar baz bat read the docs; they're often helpful."; my @word = split "", $lines; # $word replaced with @word say @word; #### #!/usr/bin/perl use 5.014; # 1007352 # error here: $word = split "", $lines; my $lines = "foo bar baz bat read the docs; they're often helpful."; my @word = split " ", $lines; # $word replaced with @word; "" replaced with " " my $word; for $word( @word) { say $word; }