Learning Perl, Second Edition

Table of contents

1. Copyright
2. Foreword
   1. Second Edition Update
3. Preface
   1. What This Book Is About
   2. Retrieving Exercises
   3. Additional Resources
   4. How to Get Perl
   5. Conventions Used in This Book
   6. Support
   7. Acknowledgments for the First Edition
   8. Acknowledgments for the Second Edition
   9. We'd Like to Hear from You
4. Introduction
   1. History of Perl
   2. Purpose of Perl
   3. Availability
   4. Basic Concepts
   5. A Stroll Through Perl
   6. Exercise
5. 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
6. 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
7. 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
8. Hashes
   1. What Is a Hash?
   2. Hash Variables
   3. Literal Representation of a Hash
   4. Hash Functions
   5. Hash Slices
   6. Exercises
9. Basic I/O
   1. Input from STDIN
   2. Input from the Diamond Operator
   3. Output to STDOUT
   4. Exercises
10. 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
11. 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
12. 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
13. 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
14. 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
15. 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
16. 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
17. 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
18. 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
19. System Database Access
    1. Getting Password and Group Information
    2. Packing and Unpacking Binary Data
    3. Getting Network Information
    4. Exercise
20. 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
21. 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
22. 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
23. 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
24. Libraries and Modules
    1. Library Terminology
    2. Standard Modules
    3. CPAN: Beyond the Standard Library
25. Networking Clients
    1. A Simple Client
    2. A Webget Client
    3. An Interactive Client
    4. Further Reading on Networking
26. 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
27. Colophon
28. Index