I had to explicitly include a count in template: "(QX$pad_len)$count", instead of simply "(QX$pad_len)*", because otherwise @values array would result in a very puzzling length of 2501 items instead of 1000 i.e. $count.

I suspect there's special code somewhere to prevent ((un?)documented(?) case of) endless loops with '(CX)*' or '(vX2)*' or similar, but still:

say for unpack '(VX2)*', "\1\1\1\1";    # why 2 items?
say for unpack '(VX3)*', "\1\1\1\1";

'X' outside of string in unpack         # how's that?

[download]

and why 2501 items with '(QX3)*' template to begin with?

In reply to How does backing up several bytes work with unpack? (a bug?) (was: Re^2: Can unpack add zero bytes before converting?) by vr
in thread Can unpack add zero bytes before converting? by mossi2000

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.