Update: I guess I shouldn't have assumed it wouldn't work before providing an alternative. The direct translation should work fine:

my $w = 5;
my $p = 3;
my $s = "abcdefg";
printf "<%*.*s>", $w,$p,$s;
[download]

My original answer below is an alternative though.

Something like the following will work for you:

my $w = 5;
my $p = 3;
my $s = "abcdefg"; 
printf "<%$w.${p}s>\n", $s;
[download]

Edit: added that ", $s" to the printf in the bottom example and added a quote in my first example. Thanks fglock++ and ichimunki++!

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";