You haven't shown us a test case which fails so I'm guessing, but if you write:

my $thing = UnPack (1, $stringpack);

[download]

$thing will get a count instead of the "first" element of the returned array because UnPack is called in scalar context. Consider:

use strict;
use warnings;

my @single = (1);
my @many   = (1 .. 3);

for my $ref (\@single, \@many) {
    my $count    = listy(@$ref);
    my @elements = listy(@$ref);
    my ($firstElement) = listy(@$ref);

    print "Count $count, first: $firstElement, elements: @elements\n";
}


sub listy {
    return @_;
}

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Prints:

Count 1, first: 1, elements: 1
Count 3, first: 1, elements: 1 2 3

[download]

If you write:

my ($thing) = UnPack (1, $stringpack);

[download]

I suspect your problem will be resolved. It's not what you return, it's the context that is important and the () provides a list context.

True laziness is hard work

In reply to Re: Force 'sub' return to be treated in list context? by GrandFather
in thread Force 'sub' return to be treated in list context? by flexvault

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