Introduction to Perl
- Origin and Design Goals of Perl
- Overview of Perl Features
- Getting and Installing Perl
- Accessing Documentation via perldoc
- HTML-Format Reference Documentation
- Perl Strengths and Limitations
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Getting Started With Perl
- Explicit Invocation of the Perl Interpreter
- Running Perl on UNIX vs. Windows
- Running Perl from the Command Line
- Using Command Line Options
- Using Debug Mode
- Implicit Invocation of the Perl Interpreter
- Running and Debugging Perl Scripts
- Simple and Compound Statements
- Fundamental Input Techniques
- Using the print
Function to Generate Standard Output
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Using Variables
- Scalar Variables
- Introduction to Standard Data Types
- Retrieving Standard Input Using the Default Variable
$_
- Assigning Strings and Numbers to Scalar Variables
- Declaring Constants for Persistent Values
- Using strict
to Declare Variables
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Pattern Matching in Perl
- Regular Expressions in Perl
- Using Pattern Matching Operators
- Altering Data with Substitutions in Regular Expressions
- Using Backreferences to Capture Data from Regular Expression
Matching
- Global and Case-Insensitive Matches
- Altering Data with Character Translation
- Using Variables in Patterns
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Operators
- Introduction to Fundamental Operators
- Operator Precedence and Associativity
- Using the Ternary Operator ?:
as a Shortcut for the if Statement
- Using <FILEHANDLE>
and <> File I/O
Operators for Standard Input/Output
- Using the Shortcut Operators +=,
-=, *=, /=
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String Manipulation
- String Comparison
- String Relations
- Concatenation
- Substring Manipulation
- Using chomp
and chop to Eliminate
EOL Characters
- Escape Characters for Formatting
- String Manipulation Functions
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Flow Control: Conditional
Statements and Looping
- Conditional Expressions and Logical Operators
- if/else/elsif
and unless
- Constructing switch/case Equivalent Expressions
- while
Loops and do Loops
- for and
foreach Loops
- Labels
- Altering Program Flow with next,
last, and redo
- Trapping Errors with the eval
Function
- Terminating a Script with exit
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Subroutines and Parameters
- Simplifying Scripts with Subroutines
- Defining and Calling a Subroutine
- Passing Arguments by Value
- Passing Arguments by Reference
- Using return
to Return a Value
- Controlling Variable Scope using my
and local Keywords
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Arrays and Hashes
- Defining Numeric Index Arrays
- Defining Associative Arrays
- Sorting Arrays with the sort Function
- Adding and Deleting Items Using push,
pop, shift, and unshift
- Using slice, splice,
and reverse
- Other Array Manipulation Techniques
- Looping through an Array
- Merging Arrays
- Introduction to Hashes
- Preallocating Memory to Optimize Hash Performance
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Packages and Modules
- The Power of Packages and Modules
- Introduction to Standard Modules
- Where to Find Modules on the Internet
- Installing a Module on UNIX or Windows
- Creating Packages for Portability
- Using Packages to Create Isolated Namespaces and to Separate
Code
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File Manipulation
- Using open
and close
- Difference Between print
and write
- Reading and Writing Arrays
- Directory Manipulation Using opendir,
closedir, readdir, chdir, mkdir and rmdir
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Input/Output Processing
- Parsing Input
- Using Standard Input, Standard Output, and Standard Error
- String and Field Processing
- Using Streams and Pipes
- Using die
to Quit with an Error
- Redirecting Standard Output and Standard Error to a File
- Getting Standard Input from a File
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Implementing Command Line
Arguments
- Reading Command Line Arguments from @ARGV
- Manipulating Positional Parameters with push,
pop, shift
- Processing Command Line Options with getopt
or getopts
- Analyzing Command Line Argument Values with the Getopt::Std
and Getopt::Long Modules
- Reserved Variables
- Manipulating Identifiable Options Using GetOptions
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Perl Report Formatting
- Defining Report Formats
- Justifying Text (Left, Right, Center)
- Using write
to Generate Reports
- Defining here
Documents for Report Customization
- Creating Report Headers
- Using Built-in Variables to Control Report Appearance
- Printing Line Numbers on a Report
- Formatting Multi-Line Output
- Writing Formatted Text to a File
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Debugging In Perl
- Using the Built-in Perl Debugger
- Starting the Debugger
- Debugger Command Syntax
- Checking for Script Syntax Errors
- Solving Compile-Time Errors
- Single-Stepping through a Script
- Executing to Breakpoints
- Setting Global Watches
- Printing Values of Variables
- Listing All Variables Used in the Script
- Using strict
Error Checking
- Quitting the Debugger
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