<contradictor>

but i cannot use the built-in hash data structure

Sure you can ;)

Oh, yes and i have to stick to only basic conditionals and iterators

No you don't ;)

Can anyone make a creative suggestion on how to do this in more effective and economic way ?

use a hash ;)

</contradictor>

substr

sub getNth {
    my $nth = shift;
    my $index = $width * $nth;
    substr $_[0], $index, $width;
}
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