my @data = ( 'thrakb boom ', 'a d j k l j s f', '012345678901234', ); foreach (@data) { print 'a unpack: ', join('|', unpack('a5a5a5',$_)), "\n"; print 'A unpack: ', join('|', unpack('A5A5A5',$_)), "\n"; } my @record = ( [qw(123 blah 21)], [qw(45 sadflkj 9)], [qw(4532 j 99)], ); foreach (@record) { print 'A pack: ', pack('A4 A10 A2',@$_),"\n"; print 'a pack: ', pack('a4 a10 a2',@$_),"\n"; }