You could:

($first[0], $first[1], @second)=unpack("A12A12A24A10",$string);

[download]

Gets a bit unwieldy with more than a few elements though and proably is not as efficient as splice in that case either.

DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel

In reply to Re: help needed in storing the return values of unpack by GrandFather
in thread help needed in storing the return values of unpack by Anonymous Monk

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