unpack

unpack 
template
, 
string

Takes a string ( string ) representing a data structure and expands it into a list value, returning the list value. ( unpack does the reverse of pack .) In a scalar context, it can be used to unpack a single value. The template has much the same format as in the pack function - it specifies the order and type of the values to be unpacked. (See pack for a more detailed description of template .)