Getting Started

A First Perl Program
Expressions, Statements, and Side-Effects

Working with Scalars

Strings
Numbers
Scalar Variables
Operators
Output of Scalar Data
Special Variables
Summary of Scalar Operators

Arrays

The Semantics of Arrays
List Literals
Array Variables
Manipulating Arrays and Lists

Control Structures

Blocks
A Digression---Truth Values
The if/unless Structures
The while/until Structures
The do while/until Structures
The for Structure
The foreach Structure

Associative Arrays (Hashes)

What Is It?
Variables
Literals
Functions
Slices
Context Considerations

Regular Expressions

The Theory Behind It All
The Simple
Pattern Matching
Regular Expression Shortcuts

Subroutines

Defining Subroutines
Returning Values
Using Arguments

Reading from and Writing to Files

Opening a File
Reading from a File
Reading into Array Variables
Writing to a File
Merging Two Files into One
Redirecting Standard Input and Standard Output
Testing for Read Permission-the Operator
Reading from a Sequence of Files
Using Command-Line Arguments as Values
Opening Pipes
Summary
Q&A
Workshop

Working with the File System

File Input and Output Functions
Directory-Manipulation Functions
File-Attribute Functions
File-Permission Functions
Miscellaneous Attribute Functions

Going Further

Packages
Using Modules

Appendix A: Background of Perl

Appendix B: A Brief History of Perl

Appendix C: Perl as a Natural Language

Appendix D: The Slogans