Update: As pointed out below, this doesn't work! Sorry, A rush of blood I think.

If you used a hash to contain your spec: 

my %TEST_REC_PACK_FLDS = {
   status => 'n  ',   #   0
   time   => 'n  ',   #   2
   date   => 'N  ',   #   4
   code   => 'a16',   #   8   key
   msid   => 'a10',   #  24   key
};

[download]

Then your field names becomes just 

use constant @TEST_FLDS => keys %TEST_REC_PACK_FLDS;

[download]

and you build your format string using 

use constant TEST_REC_PACK => $join ' ', values %TEST_REC_PACK_FLDS;

[download]

You might want to uppercase the field names.

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Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?
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In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

In reply to Re: Clarity in parsing fixed length data. by BrowserUk
in thread Clarity in parsing fixed length data. by rodion

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