Every binary (2/sup m/-2, 2/sup 2(m)-2-m/, 3) code can be lengthened to form a perfect code of length 2/sup m/-1

We answer a problem posed by Etzion and Vardy (1998) by showing that a binary code of length N=2(m)-2 with 2(N-m) codewords and minimum distance three can always be lengthened to form a perfect code of length 2(m-1).