How can I split a string into chunks of two characters each in Perl?

Question

How do I take a string in Perl and split it up into an array with entries two characters long each?

I attempted this:

@array = split(/../, $string);
         


        

Answer 1

The pattern passed to split identifies what separates that which you want. If you wanted to use split, you'd use something like

my @pairs = split /(?(?{ pos() % 2 })(?!))/, $string;

or

my @pairs = split /(?=(?:.{2})+\z)/s, $string;

Those are rather poor solutions. Better solutions include:

my @pairs = $string =~ /..?/sg;  # Accepts odd-length strings.

my @pairs = $string =~ /../sg;

my @pairs = unpack '(a2)*', $string;