Current Perl documentation can be found at perldoc.perl.org.

Here is our local, out-dated (pre-5.6) version:

To turn a string of 1s and 0s like 10110110 into a scalar containing its binary value, use the pack() function (documented in pack):

    $decimal = pack('B8', '10110110');

Here's an example of going the other way:

    $binary_string = join('', unpack('B*', "\x29"));