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Practical Perl Programming

$\copyright$ A. D. Marshall 1999-2005

PLEASE NOTE

These lecture notes are here for archival reasons. I no longer teach Perl.

As such some of the latest Perl innovations are not present. The notes refer to Perl 5.001

Nonetheless, I still believe that this is a valuable resource.

Latest Perl Version and Further Up-to-date Information

The latest stable release of Perl is 5.20 – for example, it doesn't have CGI built-in anymore.

Detail on more modern Perl maybe found at:

http://learn.perl.org/

http://perl-tutorial.org/

http://www.perl.org

PDF VERSION of PERL NOTES AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD (Local Students ONLY)

PDF PERL NOTES (Local Students ONLY)

HTML PERL NOTES

Contents
Introduction to Perl
- What is Perl?
- Installing Perl Installed
  - Getting and Installing Perl
- Writing Perl Programs
- Further Reading/Information
Numeric and String Literals
- Numeric Literals
  - Example: Numbers
- String Literals
  - Example: Single-Quoted Strings
  - Example: Double-Quoted Strings
    - Example: Back-Quoted Strings
Variables
- Scalar Variables
  - Defining Scalar Variables
  - String Scalar Variables
Arrays
- What is an Array?
- Literal Arrays
- Indexed Arrays
- Some Useful Array Functions
- Associative Arrays
  - Associative Array Operators
Operators
- The Binary Arithmetic Operators
- The Unary Arithmetic Operators
- The Logical Operators
- The Bitwise Operators
  - Comparison operators for numbers and strings
- The Range Operator (..)
- The String Operators (. and x)
- Order of Precedence
Perl Statements
- Understanding Expressions
- Statement Blocks
- Statement Blocks and Local Variables
- If/Unless statement
Functions
- Using the Parameter Array (@_)
- Passing Parameters by Reference
- Scope of Variables
- Using a List as a Function Parameter
- Nesting Function Calls
- Using a Private Function
- String Functions
- Array Functions
- Summary
References
- Reference Types
- Passing Parameters to Functions
- The ref() Function
- Example: Creating a Data Record
- Interpolating Functions Inside Double-Quoted Strings
- Summary
Files -- Input and Output in Perl
- Some Files Are Standard
  - Using the Diamond Operator (<>)
- File Test Operators
- File Functions
Regular Expressions
- What are regular Expressions
- Using Regular Expressions
  - Special pattern matching character operators
- Backtracking
- Setting the Target Operator (Binding)
- Substitution
- The Matching Operator (m//)
  - The Matching Options
- The Translation Operator (tr///)
  - The Translation Options
- The Binding Operators
- Character Classes
- Quantifiers
- Pattern Memory
- Pattern Precedence
- Extension Syntax
- Pattern Examples
- Some Practical Examples
Reports
- Format Statements
- Field Lines
- Report Headings
Special Variables
- What Are the Special Variables?
- Example: Using the DATA File Handle
- Example: Using the %ENV Variable
Handling Errors and Signals
- Checking for Errors
- Using errno
- Using the || Logical Operator
- Using the die() Function
- Using the warn() Function
- Trapping Fatal Errors
  - Using the eval() Function
- Signals
  - How to Handle a Signal
Objects in Perl
- What are objects?
- Classes
- Abtraction
- Polymorphism:Overriding Methods
- Encapsulation:Keeping Code and Data Together
- Objects in Perl
- Static Versus Regular Methods and Variables
Perl Modules
- Module Constructors and Destructors
  - The BEGIN Block
  - The END Block
- Symbol Tables
- The require Compiler Directive
- The use Compiler Directive
- Pragma in Perl
- The strict Pragma
- The Standard Modules
- strict, my() and Modules
- Module Examples
Debugging Perl
- Syntax Errors
- Common Syntax Errors
- Logic Errors
- Summary
Perl Command-Line Options
- How Are the Options Specified?
- The Command-line Options
- Example uses of command-line options
- Summary
Networking with Perl
- Sockets
- Clients and Servers
  - The Server Side of a Conversation
  - The Client Side of a Conversation
- Some Network Examples
  - Using the Time Service
  - Sending Mail (SMTP)
- Receiving Mail (POP)
  - Checking for Upness (Echo)
- Transferring Files (FTP)
  - The World Wide Web (HTTP)
CGI Programming in Perl
- CGI Scripting
- How Does CGI Work?
- Calling Your CGI Program
- Beginning CGI Programming in Perl
- HTTP Headers
  - CGI and Environment Variables
- URL Encoding
- Security
  - CGIwrap and Security
The Other Side of CGI:Input -- HTML Forms
- A Brief Overview of HTML
- Server-Side Includes
- Forms: Facilitating User Input and Interaction
- CGI Script Input: Accepting Input To Perl Scripts
Some Example Perl CGI Scripts
- Red, Green and Blue to Hexadecimal Converter
- An Address Book Search Engine
- Creating a Guest Book
- A Web Page Counter
Using Perl with Web Servers
- Server Log Files
- Reading a Log File In Perl
- Listing Access by Document
- Looking at the Status Code
- Existing Log File Analyzing Programs
- Creating Your Own CGI Log File
Internet Resources
- Web Sites
- Usenet Newsgroups
A Quick Quide to HTML
- Basic HTML Programming
- Text Formatting with HTML
- Recommended Reading
About this document ...

dave@cs.cf.ac.uk