Convert string into plain text

ultranerds has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi,

This is probably super simple for most of you - but I can't work it out =)

I have the following string:

Segments[4][0] = '\u0069\u006d\u0070\u006f\u0072\u0074\u0061\u006e\u0074';

How would I convert that into a text string? The program I'm working in, encodes it like that (to hide it from the front end users) ... but we are now moving over to a new system, so need to "reverse engineer" it, so work out what the phrases actually say =)

TIA

Andy

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Re: Convert string into plain text by choroba (Cardinal) on Nov 30, 2015 at 16:41 UTC
chr, hex: `$s = '\u0069\u006d\u0070\u006f\u0072\u0074\u0061\u006e\u0074'; $s =~ s/\\u(....)/chr hex $1/ge; say $s; __END__ important` [download] ($q=q:Sq=~/;[c](.)(.)/;chr(-\|\|-\|5+lengthSq)`"S\|oS2"`map{chr \|+ord }map{substrSq`S_+\|`\|}3E\|-\|`7**2-3:)=~y+S\|`+$1,++print+eval$q,q,a, [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Convert string into plain text by ultranerds (Hermit) on Nov 30, 2015 at 16:47 UTC
Thanks, that did it as well. This is why I love Perl - TMTOWTDI :)	[reply]
Re: Convert string into plain text by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Nov 30, 2015 at 16:39 UTC
Ta da! :) `$s = '\u0069\u006d\u0070\u006f\u0072\u0074\u0061\u006e\u0074';; $s =~ s[\\u00][]g;; print pack 'H*', $s;; important` [download] Of course, if that was just a trivial example and the real stuff is actually Unicode, that won't work. With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". I knew I was on the right track :) In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Convert string into plain text by ultranerds (Hermit) on Nov 30, 2015 at 16:43 UTC
Thank you - that worked a treat :)	[reply]
Re: Convert string into plain text by Tux (Canon) on Nov 30, 2015 at 17:46 UTC
TIMTOWTDI BrowserUK: this is Unicode safe :) `$ perl -E'say map {chr hex}unpack "(xxA4)","\\u0069\\u006d\\u0070\\u0 +06f\\u0072\\u0074\\u0061\\u006e\\u0074"' important $ cat test.pl use 5.18.2; use warnings; binmode STDOUT, ":encoding(utf-8)"; while (<DATA>) { chomp; say map { chr hex } unpack "(xxA4)", $_; } __END__ \u0069\u006d\u0070\u006f\u0072\u0074\u0061\u006e\u0074 $ perl test.pl important $` [download] Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn	[reply] [d/l]