Table of Contents

Foreword to the First Edition of Learning Perl. Foreword to the Present Edition. Preface. 1. Introduction History of Perl Purpose of Perl Availability Support Basic Concepts A Stroll Through Perl Exercises. 2. Scalar Data What Is Scalar Data? Numbers Strings Scalar Operators Scalar Variables Scalar Operators and Functions as a Scalar Value Output with print The Undefined Value Exercises. 3. Arrays and List Data What Is a List or Array? Literal Representation Variables Array Operators and Functions Scalar and List Context as an Array Variable Interpolation of Arrays Exercises. 4. Control Structures Statement Blocks The if/unless Statement The while/until Statement The do {} while/until Statement The for Statement The foreach Statement Exercises. 5. Hashes What Is a Hash? Hash Variables Literal Representation of a Hash Hash Functions Hash Slices Exercises. 6. Basic I/O Input from STDIN Input from the Diamond Operator Output to STDOUT Exercises. 7. Regular Expressions Concepts About Regular Expressions Simple Uses of Regular Expressions Patterns More on the Matching Operator Substitutions The split and join Functions Exercises. 8. Functions Defining a User Function Invoking a User Function Return Values Arguments Private Variables in Functions Semiprivate Variables Using local File-Level my( ) Variables Exercises. 9. Miscellaneous Control Structures The last Statement The next Statement The redo Statement Labeled Blocks Expression Modifiers &&, ||, and ?: as Control Structures Exercises. 10. Filehandles and File Tests What Is a Filehandle? Opening and Closing a Filehandle Using Pathnames and Filenames A Slight Diversion: die Using Filehandles The -x File Tests The stat Function Exercises. 11. Formats What Is a Format? Defining a Format Invoking a Format More About the Fieldholders The Top-of-Page Format Changing Defaults for Formats The FileHandle Module Exercises. 12. Directory Access Moving Around the Directory Tree Globbing Directory Handles Opening and Closing a Directory Handle Reading a Directory Handle Exercises. 13. File and Directory Manipulation Removing a File Renaming a File Making and Removing Directories Modifying Permissions Modifying Timestamps Exercises. 14. Process Management Using system and exec Using Backquotes Using Processes as Filehandles Summary of Process Operations Win32::Process Exercises. 15. Other Data Transformation Finding a Substring Extracting and Replacing a Substring Formatting Data with sprintf( ) Advanced Sorting Transliteration Exercises. 16. System Information Getting User and Machine Information Packing and Unpacking Binary Data Getting Network Information The Registry Opening and Reading Registry Values Setting Registry Values Exercises. 17. Database Manipulation DBM Databases and DBM Hashes Opening and Closing DBM Hashes Using a DBM Hash Fixed-Length Random-Access Databases Variable-Length ( Text) Databases Win32 Database Interfaces Exercises. 18. CGI Programming The CGI.pm Module Your CGI Program in Context Simplest CGI Program Passing Parameters via CGI Creating a Guestbook Program Troubleshooting CGI Programs Perl and the Web: Beyond CGI Programming Further Reading Exercises. 19. OLE Automation Introduction to OLE Automation Creating Automation Objects Using Automation Objects Variants Tips and Techniques Exercises. A. Exercise Answers. B. Libraries and Modules. C. Networking Clients. D. Topics We Didn't Mention. Index

About the Author

Randal L. Schwartz is an eclectic tradesman and entrepreneur, making his living through software design, technical writing and training, system administration, security consultation, and video production. He is known internationally for his prolific, humorous, and occasionally incorrect spatterings on Usenet -- especially his "Just another Perl hacker" signoffs in comp.lang.perl. Randal honed his many crafts through seven years of employment at Tektronix, ServioLogic, and Sequent. Since 1985, he has owned and operated Stonehenge Consulting Services in his home town of Portland, Oregon. Randal is not new to O'Reilly. He is author of Learning Perl and co-author of Programming Perl, which he wrote with Tom Christiansen and Larry Wall, the creator of Perl. Erik Olson is a renegade linguist who makes a living developing software for Win32 platforms. Since 1994, Erik has been director of advanced technologies for Axiom Technologies, LC, a software outsourcing shop. Erik delivers developer training, system administration, and program/concept development for a number of large-scale horizontal and vertical applications. Working as a program developer since 1986, Erik has implemented a variety of systems ranging from point-of-sales systems to horizontal PIM products to real-time financial market applications. Although much of his work is done in C++, he has particular interests in interpreted languages and ActiveX scripting. Erik earned a B.A. in linguistics from the University of Utah and pursued graduate studies in Arabic linguistics there and at the University of Washington. Tom Christiansen is a freelance consultant specializing in Perl training and writing. After working for several years for TSR Hobbies (of Dungeons and Dragons fame), he set off for college where he spent a year in Spain and five in America dabbling in music, linguistics, programming, and some half-dozen spoken languages. Tom finally escaped UW-Madison with B.A.s in Spanish and computer science and an M.S. in computer science. He then spent five years at Convex as a jack-of-all-trades working on everything from system administration to utility and kernel development, with customer support and training thrown in for good measure. Tom also served two terms on the USENIX Association Board of Directors. With over fifteen year's experience in UNIX system administration and programming, Tom presents seminars internationally. Living in the foothills above Boulder, Colorado, surrounded by mule deer, skunks, and the occasional mountain lion and black bear, Tom takes summers off for hiking, hacking, birding, music making, and gaming.