using unpack to deal with fix-width data

unpack.pl

my $format = 'A2 @4 A10 @16 A6 @24 A*';

my $string = <<'COLUMMNAR';
ID  First Name  Middle  Last Name                     
 1  brian       d       foy
 2  Joshua              McAdams 
 3  Joseph      N       Hall
COLUMMNAR

open my ($fh), '<', \$string;
my @headers = unpack $format, <$fh>;
my @names;
while(<$fh>) {
    my %hash;
    @hash { @headers } = unpack $format, $_;
    push @names, \%hash;
}

use Data::Dumper::Names;
print Dumper( \@names );