Benchmark: timing 5 iterations of ary, split, substr, unpack...
       ary:  8 wallclock secs ( 8.62 usr +  0.00 sys =  8.62 CPU) @  0.58/s (n=5)
     split: 26 wallclock secs (24.93 usr +  0.33 sys = 25.26 CPU) @  0.20/s (n=5)
    substr: 11 wallclock secs (11.64 usr +  0.00 sys = 11.64 CPU) @  0.43/s (n=5)
    unpack:  7 wallclock secs ( 6.14 usr +  0.03 sys =  6.17 CPU) @  0.81/s (n=5)
       s/iter  split substr    ary unpack
split    5.05     --   -54%   -66%   -76%
substr   2.33   117%     --   -26%   -47%
ary      1.72   193%    35%     --   -28%
unpack   1.23   309%    89%    40%     --