sub funpack { my ($template, $source) = @_; my ($i, @field, @format) = 0; push @{ (\@format, \@field)[$i++ & 1] }, $_ for map /^([^:]+):(.*)/, split " ", $template; local $" = " "; return { map +(shift(@format) => $_), unpack "@format", $source }; } my $data = funpack 'A20:name A1:sex A3:age A8:salary A12:sign', $foo;