How do you tokenise / tokenize / split a delimited string in Perl?

Question

How do you split a string e.g. "a:b:c:d" into tokens for parsing in Perl?

(e.g. using split?)

Looking for clear, straightforward answer above all (but do add any interesting tidbits of info afterwards).

Answer 1

Yes, split is what you want.

@tokens = split(/:/, "a:b:c:d");
foreach my $token (@tokens) {
    ....
}

Answer 2

You can use split. You can also use it with a regex.

my @tokens = split(/:/,$string);

For more advanced parsing, I recommend Parse::RecDescent

Answer 3

Also take a look at the documentation that comes with perl by typing at a command line prompt:

perldoc -f split

To search the FAQs use

perldoc -q split

Answer 4

if you have:

$a = "a:b:c:d";
@b = split /:/, $a;

then you get:

@b = ("a", "b", "c", "d")

In general, this is how split works:

split /PATTERN/,EXPR

Where PATTERN can be pretty much regex. You're not limited to simple tokens like ':'