Learning Perl
Learning Perl, Second Edition By Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Christiansen
Foreword by Larry Wall
July 1997
Pages: 300

| Table of Contents | Index | Sample Chapter | Colophon

Table of Contents

  1. Chapter 1 Introduction

    1. History of Perl

    2. Purpose of Perl

    3. Availability

    4. Basic Concepts

    5. A Stroll Through Perl

    6. Exercise

  2. Chapter 2 Scalar Data

    1. What Is Scalar Data?

    2. Numbers

    3. Strings

    4. Scalar Operators

    5. Scalar Variables

    6. Scalar Operators and Functions

    7. <STDIN> as a Scalar Value

    8. Output with print

    9. The Undefined Value

    10. Exercises

  3. Chapter 3 Arrays and List Data

    1. What Is a List or Array?

    2. Literal Representation

    3. Variables

    4. Array Operators and Functions

    5. Scalar and List Context

    6. <STDIN> as an Array

    7. Variable Interpolation of Arrays

    8. Exercises

  4. Chapter 4 Control Structures

    1. Statement Blocks

    2. The if/unless Statement

    3. The while/until Statement

    4. The for Statement

    5. The foreach Statement

    6. Exercises

  5. Chapter 5 Hashes

    1. What Is a Hash?

    2. Hash Variables

    3. Literal Representation of a Hash

    4. Hash Functions

    5. Hash Slices

    6. Exercises

  6. Chapter 6 Basic I/O

    1. Input from STDIN

    2. Input from the Diamond Operator

    3. Output to STDOUT

    4. Exercises

  7. Chapter 7 Regular Expressions

    1. Concepts About Regular Expressions

    2. Simple Uses of Regular Expressions

    3. Patterns

    4. More on the Matching Operator

    5. Substitutions

    6. The split and join Functions

    7. Exercises

  8. Chapter 8 Functions

    1. Defining a User Function

    2. Invoking a User Function

    3. Return Values

    4. Arguments

    5. Private Variables in Functions

    6. Semiprivate Variables Using local

    7. File-Level my( ) Variables

    8. Exercises

  9. Chapter 9 Miscellaneous Control Structures

    1. The last Statement

    2. The next Statement

    3. The redo Statement

    4. Labeled Blocks

    5. Expression Modifiers

    6. && and || as Control Structures

    7. Exercises

  10. Chapter 10 Filehandles and File Tests

    1. What Is a Filehandle?

    2. Opening and Closing a Filehandle

    3. A Slight Diversion: die

    4. Using Filehandles

    5. The -x File Tests

    6. The stat and lstat Functions

    7. Exercises

  11. Chapter 11 Formats

    1. What Is a Format?

    2. Defining a Format

    3. Invoking a Format

    4. More About the Fieldholders

    5. The Top-of-Page Format

    6. Changing Defaults for Formats

    7. Exercises

  12. Chapter 12 Directory Access

    1. Moving Around the Directory Tree

    2. Globbing

    3. Directory Handles

    4. Opening and Closing a Directory Handle

    5. Reading a Directory Handle

    6. Exercises

  13. Chapter 13 File and Directory Manipulation

    1. Removing a File

    2. Renaming a File

    3. Creating Alternate Names for a File: Linking

    4. Making and Removing Directories

    5. Modifying Permissions

    6. Modifying Ownership

    7. Modifying Timestamps

    8. Exercises

  14. Chapter 14 Process Management

    1. Using system and exec

    2. Using Backquotes

    3. Using Processes as Filehandles

    4. Using fork

    5. Summary of Process Operations

    6. Sending and Receiving Signals

    7. Exercises

  15. Chapter 15 Other Data Transformation

    1. Finding a Substring

    2. Extracting and Replacing a Substring

    3. Formatting Data with sprintf( )

    4. Advanced Sorting

    5. Transliteration

    6. Exercises

  16. Chapter 16 System Database Access

    1. Getting Password and Group Information

    2. Packing and Unpacking Binary Data

    3. Getting Network Information

    4. Exercise

  17. Chapter 17 User Database Manipulation

    1. DBM Databases and DBM Hashes

    2. Opening and Closing DBM Hashes

    3. Using a DBM Hash

    4. Fixed-Length Random Access Databases

    5. Variable-Length ( Text) Databases

    6. Exercises

  18. Chapter 18 Converting Other Languages to Perl

    1. Converting awk Programs to Perl

    2. Converting sed Programs to Perl

    3. Converting Shell Programs to Perl

    4. Exercise

  19. Chapter 19 CGI Programming

    1. The CGI.pm Module

    2. Your CGI Program in Context

    3. Simplest CGI Program

    4. Passing Parameters via CGI

    5. Less Typing

    6. Form Generation

    7. Other Form Elements

    8. Creating a Guestbook Program

    9. Troubleshooting CGI Programs

    10. Perl and the Web: Beyond CGI Programming

    11. Further Reading

    12. Exercises

  1. Appendix A Exercise Answers

    1. Chapter 2

    2. Chapter 3

    3. Chapter 4

    4. Chapter 5

    5. Chapter 6

    6. Chapter 7

    7. Chapter 8

    8. Chapter 9

    9. Chapter 10

    10. Chapter 11

    11. Chapter 12

    12. Chapter 13

    13. Chapter 14

    14. Chapter 15

    15. Chapter 16

    16. Chapter 17

    17. Chapter 18

    18. Chapter 19

  2. Appendix B Libraries and Modules

    1. Library Terminology

    2. Standard Modules

    3. CPAN: Beyond the Standard Library

  3. Appendix C Networking Clients

    1. A Simple Client

    2. A Webget Client

    3. An Interactive Client

    4. Further Reading on Networking

  4. Appendix D Topics We Didn't Mention

    1. Full Interprocess Communications

    2. The Debugger

    3. The Command Line

    4. Other Operators

    5. Many, Many More Functions

    6. Many, Many Predefined Variables

    7. Symbol Table Manipulation with *FRED

    8. Additional Regular-Expression Features

    9. Packages

    10. Embeddible, Extensible

    11. And Other Stuff

  5. Colophon

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