The reverse of encode→pack is unpack→decode. You have to remove "layers" in the opposite order that they've been applied, so you're doing it in the wrong order.

I don't see any trivial way of extracting the string before it's decoded, unfortunately.

sub extract_text { $_[0] =~ s/^((?:..)*)\0\0//s or die; return decode('UTF-16le', "$1"); } my $first_name = extract_text($bytes); my $middle_name = extract_text($bytes); my $last_name = extract_text($bytes); my ($x, $y) = unpack('VV', substr($bytes, 0, 8, '')); my $address = extract_text($bytes); my $zip_code = extract_text($bytes); my ($z) = unpack('V', substr($bytes, 0, 4, ''));
or maybe
my @fields = $bytes =~ / ^ ((?:..)*)\0\0 ((?:..)*)\0\0 ((?:..)*)\0\0 (.{4}) (.{4}) ((?:..)*)\0\0 ((?:..)*)\0\0 (.{4}) \z /sx or die; $_ = decode('UTF-16le', $_) for @fields[0,1,2,5,6]; $_ = unpack('V', $_) for @fields[3,4,7];

In reply to Re: unpacking mixed ascii & utf16 null termed strings by ikegami
in thread unpacking mixed ascii & utf16 null termed strings by patcat88

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