Wow!
Thanks alot for the thoughtful response and the code.

Right now, I think that for the project I am going to go with unpack, but since I am still learning, I may just try to develop two different versions with both methods as an academic exercise.(never one to pass up a learning opportunity)

My fields aren't necessarily a constant width, so some of the advice I have gotten won't work for this project (although it is being filed in the ol' head for the future)
Thanks for the tip with the @nnn thing, it is something that I should have known (I should have read the docs on unpack before ever using the word in my post, but I just read about in the camel...live and learn).

I think that I am on the right track now, thanks to the monks. The community for Perl programmers is unequaled!

Thanks again,
XC