Store a number as a string, while using up less space than if you were to write out the whole number. Example: The number 1819436368 (10 chars) can be stored as the string "Perl" (4 chars). Useful when you need to save on space. See node 317125.
#!/usr/bin/perl -W

  # Takes a number between 0 and 2^32,
  # returns 4 characters (ASCII).
sub num_to_chars  
{
my $packed = pack( "l", $_[0] );
return unpack( "A*", $packed );
}

  # Takes 4 ASCII chars, returns a "long"
sub chars_to_num
{
my $chars = pack( "A*", $_[0] );
return unpack( "l", $chars );
}

[download]

In reply to Numbers as a stream of letters by bl0rf

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.