#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; my $text=shift; my($maxwl, $lastwl)=(0, 0); for my $x(split //, $text) { $x=($x eq ' '); ($maxwl, $lastwl) =( ($maxwl==$lastwl and $x)? $maxwl+1: $maxwl, $x? $lastwl+1: 0 ); } print "$maxwl\n";