Ok. Here you go: 

#! perl -slw
use strict;
use Benchmark qw[ cmpthese ];


our $packedV = pack 'V*', 1 .. 1e6;
our $packedW = pack 'w*', 1 .. 1e6;
our $packedVec = '';  vec( $packedVec, $_, 32 ) = $_ for 0 .. 1e6 - 1;

cmpthese -5, {
    unpackV   => q[ my @nums = unpack 'V*', $packedV; ],
    unpackW   => q[ my @nums = unpack 'w*', $packedW; ],
    unVec     => q[ 
        my @nums; push @nums, vec( $packedVec, $_, 32 ) for 0 .. 1e6 -
+ 1 
    ],
};

print "$_: ", length( do{ no strict; ${$_} } ) 
    for qw[ packedV packedW packedVec ];

__END__
C:\test>junk0
          Rate   unVec unpackV unpackW
unVec   1.87/s      --    -29%    -31%
unpackV 2.64/s     41%      --     -2%
unpackW 2.70/s     44%      2%      --

packedV:   4000000
packedW:   2983490
packedVec: 4000000

[download]

unpack 'w' is 44 % faster than vec and compresses the data to 75% to boot. Which means less time to transfer from the DB.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

In reply to Re^8: Do you really want to use an array there? by BrowserUk
in thread Do you really want to use an array there? by deprecated

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