#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use utf8;
use Text::Unidecode;

# I download text with embedded HTML numbers , as in
# "advice to Gwenda to “let sleeping murder lie.”"
#
# 8220 is a decimal number for 'left double quotation mark'.";
#
# To convert this HTML number to a double quote, one can use
# the Perl module Text::Unicode.  It seems however that one
# needs to use a hexadecimal number (in this case '201c')
# for the unidecode() function.

print "Function unidecode() prints the 'left double quotation mark': ";
print unidecode("\x{201c}") . "\n";

# I can get the hexadecimal number as follows:
my $hexval = sprintf("%x", 8220);

# MY ACTUAL QUESTION: how to get $hexval into the call to
# unidecode()?  unidecode("\x\{".$hexval."\}") does not do
# the job, and I have tried half a dozen other ways that I
# thought would work, but do not.

# Does anyone know how to do this?