Try here: Pack/Unpack Tutorial (aka How the System Stores Data).

s**lil*;  $*=join'',sort split q**;  s;.*;grr; &&s+(.(.)).+$2$1+; $; =
qq-$_-;s,.*,ahc,;$,.=chop for split q,,,reverse;print for($,,$;,$*,$/)
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<blatant_promotion>Just in case... there is also an Italian translation.</blatant_promotion>

# should unpack to:
#   an int32 (4 byte) value of -1
#   a char (1 byte) value of 'A'
#   a null-terminated string value of "ANOTHER"
#   a null-terminated string value of "CSTRING"
$packed_string = "\xFF\xFF\xFF\xFF"
               . "\x41"
               . "\x41\x4e\x4f\x54\x48\x45\x52\x00"
               . "\x43\x53\x54\x52\x49\x4e\x47\x00";

# should just be able to plug in some kind of
# format for unpack, right?
($int,$char,$another,$cstring)
  = unpack('',$packed_string );
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What problem are you encountering?

#! perl -slw
use strict;
# should unpack to:
#   an int32 (4 byte) value of -1
#   a char (1 byte) value of 'A'
#   a null-terminated string value of "ANOTHER"
#   a null-terminated string value of "CSTRING"
my $packed_string = "\xFF\xFF\xFF\xFF"
               . "\x41"
               . "\x41\x4e\x4f\x54\x48\x45\x52\x00"
               . "\x43\x53\x54\x52\x49\x4e\x47\x00";

# should just be able to plug in some kind of
# format for unpack, right?
my ($int,$char,$another,$cstring)  = unpack('l A1 Z* Z*',$packed_strin
+g );

print "int: $int Char:$char String:$another String:$cstring";

__END__
c:\test>junk7
int: -1 Char:A String:ANOTHER String:CSTRING
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