Beginning Perl

Course Description

This three-day course provides participants with an introduction to the Perl programming language. After completing this course, students will be able to create basic Perl scripts.
3 days
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Prerequisites

Programming experience in a structured language, such as C, C++, Java, or COBOL, is strongly recommended.

Introduction – Meet Perl

Origin of Perl
Perl Versions
Invoking Perl
Perl Documentation
Perl Resources

Scalar Variables

Numeric Literals
Manipulating Numbers
String Literals
Manipulating Strings
Single vs. Double Quotes
Scalars Variables
Undefined Variables
Auto increment and decrement
Reading data from the user
Chomp & Chop
Curly Braces
Additional Resources

Array Variables

Referencing Array Elements
Adding & Removing Elements
The Splice Function
Using for Loops
The Reverse Statement
The Sort Operator
The qw & qq statements
Arrays used in scalar context
Additional Resources

Associate Array Variables

Crating Associate Arrays
The Values Statement
Reverse searching an associative array
exists vs. defined
Special Variables
The Environment Variables
The Argument Variable
Additional Resources

Flow Control

Blocks
The if Statement
The unless Statement
The switch Statement
The given Statement
The while Statement
The until Statement
The do Statement
Loop Control: last
Loop Control: next
Additional Resources

Conditional Expressions

Numeric Comparison
String Comparison
Pattern Matching
Using the Outcome of a Statement
File Test Conditions
Complex Conditional Expressions
Understand and/or versus &&/||
Using Parentheses
Short Circuiting
Additional Resources

Basic Input and Output

Reading Input
while & until Loops
Record Separator Variable
The Diamond Operator
The Default Variable
Using Parentheses

Advanced Input and Output

Filehandles
The die and warn Statements
Opening and Reading from Files
Opening and Writing to Files
Reading a Block of a Filehandle
Reading a Single Character
Piping in Perl
The format Statement
Here Documents
Additional Resources

Pattern Matching

Pattern Matching vs. Wildcards
Matching, Substituting and Translation
Modifiers
Regular Expressions: Metacharacters
Regular Expressions: Classes
Regular Expressions: Backreferencing
Additional Resources

Perl Utilities

split
join
substr
index
rindex
grep
srand & rand
sleep
Additional Resources

Filesystem & Process Control

Controlling the Filesystem within Perl
Working with Directories
Working with Files
Back-Quoting
The System Statement
Additional Resources

Functions

Creating Functions
Invoking Functions
Returning Values from Functions
Passing Parameters
Scope of Variables
local() vs. my()
Additional Resources

Using Modules

What are Modules?
Loading Modules with use
Other Functions of use
Additional Resources

Debugging Perl

The –w Switch
The Perl Debugger
Debugger Commands
Additional Resources
PerlPerl Programming