Perl: split()
split()
split() allows you to split a string on a certain character or pattern
split returns the substrings as an array
$line = "Eric:Larson:15 Shady Lane:North Smithfield:RI:02896";
($fname,$lname,$address,$city,$state,$zip) = split(/:/,$line);
print "Name is: $fname $lname\n";
$line = "Eric:Larson:15 Shady Lane:North Smithfield:RI:02896";
($fname,$lname,$zip) = (split(/:/,$line))[0,1,5];
print "Name is: $fname $lname\n";