Split a string?

($First4,$Next4,$Last4) = ($PromoNum =~ /(\d+\D+\d+\D+\d+\D+\d+)\D+(\d+(?:\D+\d+){3}).*?(\d+(?:\D+\d+){3})\D*$/);

one way to this is ( there is certainly more efficient way to do this ) :
#!/usr/bin/perl
$PromoNum="1234567895678";
@tmp= split // , $PromoNum;
$first4=$tmp[0].$tmp[1].$tmp[2].$tmp[3];
$next4=$tmp[4].$tmp[5].$tmp[6].$tmp[7];
$last4=$tmp[8].$tmp[9].$tmp[10].$tmp[11];
print " $first4 $next4 $last4 \n";

Did you mean Place the first 4 digits in $First4 ?
What is a "number" and what is in $PromoNum besides "numbers"?

burnotte wrote:
 > one way to this is ( there is certainly more efficient way to do
 this ) :


 Well, yes, that is one way to do it.  However, it's an exceedingly
 bad way, and not nearly as flexible as ozo's suggestion, which he was
 patiently waiting for acceptance of before submitting an actual
 answer.

 Perhaps burnotte can explain why he felt justified in proposing such
 an awful answer, on top of ozo's code?

 4099aol, please reject this answer.

Sorry but ozo did give me the codes..

ozo.  I am sorry I should have said digits.  The digits that will be in $PromoNum are numbers (0-9).

thanks.

ozo, I was unable to get your codes to work.  Please check them out.  

thanks

Amazingly enough, I see the problem in Ozo's code: The first
parenthetic term [ (\d+\D+\d+\D+\d+\D+\d+) ] will fail if the four
digits are abutting. (I think) Furthermore, that may grab more than
four digits if abutting.

A slightly different way (maybe more maintainable by a non-perl guru,
or, maybe not, but almost certainly _less_ efficient [sigh, I always
take the easy way out]):

($t = $PromoNum) =~ s/\D//g;
$t =~ /(.{4})(.{4}).*(.{4})/;
$First4 = $1;
$Next4 = $2;
$Last4 = $3;

If the length of the string is fixed (3x4digits, how about:
  ($l, $m, $r) = unpack "a4 a4 a4", $PromoNum;

I was able to get burnotte's codes to work.  Sorry for rejecting you answer, if you want to reanswer it I will give you the 200 points.

There's a reason I flamed burnotte's code (Other than a lack of coffee
and cigarettes).  If that's a user entered field, and the user happens
to enter a space somewhere, you'll fail.  It's also the _most_
inefficient way to do this.

There's a reason I flamed burnotte's code (Other than a lack of coffee
and cigarettes).  If that's a user entered field, and the user happens
to enter a space somewhere, you'll fail.  It's also the _most_
inefficient way to do this.

#if you want just 4 Digits, (with possible non-digits in between them)
($First4,$Next4,$Last4) = ($PromoNum =~/(\d\D*\d\D*\d\D*\d)\D*(\d(?:\D*\d){3}).*?(\d(?:\D*\d){3})\D*$/);
#If you just want 4 characters of any kind, burnotte's answer will work, although it may be easier to just say
$First4 = substr($PromoNum,0,4);
$Next4 = substr($PromoNum,4,4);
$Last4 = substr($PromoNum,-4);

Thanks ozo, your codes are now working.  Please answer the question so that I could give you the points...