path: root/perl.html.markdown

---
name: perl
category: language
language: perl
filename: learnperl.pl
contributors:
    - ["Korjavin Ivan", "http://github.com/korjavin"]
    - ["Dan Book", "http://github.com/Grinnz"]
---

Perl 5 is a highly capable, feature-rich programming language with over 25 years of development.

Perl 5 runs on over 100 platforms from portables to mainframes and is suitable for both rapid prototyping and large scale development projects.

```perl
# Single line comments start with a number sign.

#### Perl variable types

#  Variables begin with a sigil, which is a symbol showing the type.
#  A valid variable name starts with a letter or underscore,
#  followed by any number of letters, numbers, or underscores.

### Perl has three main variable types: $scalar, @array, and %hash.

## Scalars
#  A scalar represents a single value:
my $animal = "camel";
my $answer = 42;

# Scalar values can be strings, integers or floating point numbers, and
# Perl will automatically convert between them as required.

## Arrays
#  An array represents a list of values:
my @animals = ("camel", "llama", "owl");
my @numbers = (23, 42, 69);
my @mixed   = ("camel", 42, 1.23);

# Array elements are accessed using square brackets, with a $ to indicate
# one value will be returned.
my $second = $animals[1];

## Hashes
#   A hash represents a set of key/value pairs:

my %fruit_color = ("apple", "red", "banana", "yellow");

#  You can use whitespace and the "=>" operator to lay them out more nicely:

my %fruit_color = (
  apple  => "red",
  banana => "yellow",
);

# Hash elements are accessed using curly braces, again with the $ sigil.
my $color = $fruit_color{apple};

# Scalars, arrays and hashes are documented more fully in perldata.
# (perldoc perldata).

#### References

# More complex data types can be constructed using references, which allow
# you to build arrays and hashes within arrays and hashes.

my $array_ref = \@array;
my $hash_ref = \%hash;
my @array_of_arrays = (\@array1, \@array2, \@array3);

# You can also create anonymous arrays or hashes, returning a reference:

my $fruits = ["apple", "banana"];
my $colors = {apple => "red", banana => "yellow"};

# References can be dereferenced by prefixing the appropriate sigil.

my @fruits_array = @$fruits;
my %colors_hash = %$colors;

# As a shortcut, the arrow operator can be used to dereference and access a
# single value.

my $first = $array_ref->[0];
my $value = $hash_ref->{banana};

# See perlreftut and perlref for more in-depth documentation on references.

#### Conditional and looping constructs

# Perl has most of the usual conditional and looping constructs.

if ($var) {
  ...
} elsif ($var eq 'bar') {
  ...
} else {
  ...
}

unless (condition) {
  ...
}
# This is provided as a more readable version of "if (!condition)"

# the Perlish post-condition way
print "Yow!" if $zippy;
print "We have no bananas" unless $bananas;

#  while
while (condition) {
  ...
}


# for loops and iteration
for (my $i = 0; $i < $max; $i++) {
  print "index is $i";
}

for (my $i = 0; $i < @elements; $i++) {
  print "Current element is " . $elements[$i];
}

for my $element (@elements) {
  print $element;
}

# implicitly

for (@elements) {
  print;
}

# the Perlish post-condition way again
print for @elements;

# iterating through the keys and values of a referenced hash
print $hash_ref->{$_} for keys %$hash_ref;

#### Regular expressions

# Perl's regular expression support is both broad and deep, and is the subject
# of lengthy documentation in perlrequick, perlretut, and elsewhere.
# However, in short:

# Simple matching
if (/foo/)       { ... }  # true if $_ contains "foo"
if ($a =~ /foo/) { ... }  # true if $a contains "foo"

# Simple substitution

$a =~ s/foo/bar/;         # replaces foo with bar in $a
$a =~ s/foo/bar/g;        # replaces ALL INSTANCES of foo with bar in $a


#### Files and I/O

# You can open a file for input or output using the "open()" function.

open(my $in,  "<",  "input.txt")  or die "Can't open input.txt: $!";
open(my $out, ">",  "output.txt") or die "Can't open output.txt: $!";
open(my $log, ">>", "my.log")     or die "Can't open my.log: $!";

# You can read from an open filehandle using the "<>" operator.  In scalar
# context it reads a single line from the filehandle, and in list context it
# reads the whole file in, assigning each line to an element of the list:

my $line  = <$in>;
my @lines = <$in>;

#### Writing subroutines

# Writing subroutines is easy:

sub logger {
  my $logmessage = shift;

  open my $logfile, ">>", "my.log" or die "Could not open my.log: $!";

  print $logfile $logmessage;
}

# Now we can use the subroutine just as any other built-in function:

logger("We have a logger subroutine!");

#### Modules

# A module is a set of Perl code, usually subroutines, which can be used in
# other Perl code. It is usually stored in a file with the extension .pm so
# that Perl can find it.

package MyModule;

sub trim {
  my $string = shift;
  $string =~ s/^\s+//;
  $string =~ s/\s+$//;
  return $string;
}

1;

# From elsewhere:

use MyModule;
MyModule::trim($string);

# The Exporter module can help with making subroutines exportable, so they
# can be used like this:

use MyModule 'trim';
trim($string);

# Many Perl modules can be downloaded from CPAN (http://www.cpan.org/) and
# provide a range of features to help you avoid reinventing the wheel.  A
# number of popular modules like Exporter are included with the Perl
# distribution itself. See perlmod for more details on modules in Perl.

#### Objects

# Objects in Perl are just references that know which class (package) they
# belong to, so that methods (subroutines) called on it can be found there.
# The bless function is used in constructors (usually new) to set this up.
# However, you never need to call it yourself if you use a module like Moose
# or Moo (see below).

package MyCounter;

sub new {
  my $class = shift;
  my $self = {count => 0};
  return bless $self, $class;
}

sub count {
  my $self = shift;
  return $self->{count};
}

sub increment {
  my $self = shift;
  $self->{count}++;
}

1;

# Methods can be called on a class or object instance with the arrow operator.

my $counter = MyCounter->new;
print $counter->count, "\n"; # 0
$counter->increment;
print $counter->count, "\n"; # 1

# The modules Moose and Moo from CPAN can help you set up your object classes.
# They provide a constructor and simple syntax for declaring attributes. This
# class can be used equivalently to the one above.

package MyCounter;
use Moo;

has 'count' => (is => 'rwp', default => 0, init_arg => undef);

sub increment {
  my $self = shift;
  $self->_set_count($self->count + 1);
}

1;

# Object-oriented programming is covered more thoroughly in perlootut, and its
# low-level implementation in Perl is covered in perlobj.
```

#### FAQ

perlfaq contains questions and answers related to many common tasks, and often provides suggestions for good CPAN modules to use.

#### Further Reading

 - [perl-tutorial](http://perl-tutorial.org/)
 - [Learn at www.perl.com](http://www.perl.org/learn.html)
 - [perldoc](http://perldoc.perl.org/)
 - and perl built-in : `perldoc perlintro`