Introduction To Perl Programming

1 Introduction

1.1 What is Perl?

• Perl = “Practical Extraction and Report Language”
• Perl is optimized for scanning arbitrary text files,
extracting information from those text files, and printing
reports based on that information.
• According to its author, Larry Wall, “ the language is
intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient,
complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal).
It combines some of the best features of C, sed/awk,
and UNIX shell. ”

1.2 Advantages of Perl

• Speed and Efficiency
Perl compiles a program before executing it
It is usually run faster than sed/awk scripts

• Regular Expressions
Unlike shell and C, Perl has built-in regular expression
A regex is a way of describing a set of strings without
having to list all the strings in your set

• Automatic Error Recovery

Perl makes some assumptions to recover from errors
open() or close() on empty file handle do not cause
crash

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1.3 Perl Basics

1.3.1General
• Perl program is executed in “top-down” manner
• No main() function
• Unlike the shell, but similar to C, Perl programs (or
script files) are freely formatted

1.3.2 Interpreter
• The first line contains the character sequence #!
followed by the full pathname of the Perl interpreter

#!/usr/intel/bin/perl

1.3.3 Comments
• Uses # for comments

# This is a comment line

All text after # will be ignored, except first line which

Note start from #!
Note

1.3.4 End of Statement

• Each statement end in semi-colon ;

print("hello,world\n");

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LAB 1
1. Using a text editor such as vi or emacs, input the line of
statement below and then save the file as hello.pl
print("hello,world\n");

At Unix shell prompt, run

$> perl hello.pl

2. Edit the file hello.pl again, using the previous file.

Append the statement below at the first line of the file,
then save it.

#!/usr/intel/bin/perl

At Unix shell prompt, run

$> hello.pl

Note hello.pl must be in executable mode (+x)

Note

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2 Literals

2.1 Numbers
• Numerical values can be specified in 4 types
▪ Decimal –> Decimal number is base 10
Example: 20
▪ Hexadecimal – > Data prefixed with 0x is base 16
Example: 0x14
▪ Octal –> Data prefixed with a single 0 is base 8
Example: 024
▪ Scientific –> Values in the form of xE+y
Example: 2E1

2.2 Strings
• Strings are stored in either single or double quotes

$x = "hello";
$x = hello;

• The difference between them is that variables within

double quotes are being evaluated

$x = "hello";
print "$x,world\n"; # display: hello,world
print $x,world\n; # display: $x,world\n

Note The single quote is  (apostrophes) not ` (backticks)

Note

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2.3 Math Operators

• List of current math operators available

++ Increment Operator
-- Decrement Operator
** Exponentiation
% Modulus (3%2 returns 1, the remainder)
* / Multiplication and Division
+ - Addition and Subtraction

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3 Scalar Data

3.1 General
• All references to scalar variables (both assigning and
retrieving) are prefixed with the $ character
• Can be a number, string of characters or boolean
• Default to undef, null string or 0

3.2 Assigning Values

• Assigning values to scalar variables uses the =
operator, as in:

$name = "Intel Malaysia";

3.3 Retrieving Values

• The scalar variables (once assigned) can then be used
in other places

print $name;

3.4 The Special $_ Variable

• Default for many operations
• Default input and pattern searching
• Used to hold the current line

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3.5 chop() Operator

• Takes in a single argument and removes the last
character from the argument
• Useful since perl doesn’t automatically discard newlines

$scalar = "12345";
chop($scalar); # scalar is 1234

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4 Basic I/O

4.1 STDIN
• Read in the next line from standard input

print "Enter your name: ";

$name = <STDIN>;

$name = chop($name);
print "Hello $name, $lastchar";

chop($name);
print "Hello $name";

chop($name);
print "Hello $name";

Why we left the carriage-return at the third line?

Question

4.2 STDIN Shortcut

• The default filehandle inside the diamond operator <> is
STDIN, there for both statements below are identical

$name = <STDIN>;
$name = <>;

4.3 STDOUT and STDERR

• Filehandle for standard output and error.

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LAB 2
1. Write a program that reads a string and a number, and
prints the string the numbers of times indicated by the
number on separated lines.
(Hint: use the "x" operator)

Expected output:

$> lab2.pl
Enter string: test
Enter times: 3
test
test
test

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5 Arrays

5.1 Definition
• Arrays are groups of scalar variables, with each
member indexed by a number
• Arrays can have any number of elements
• Elements can store anything from a number, a string to
a pointer to another array
• Denoted by initial character “ @“

@name = (martin,alan,dave,andy);
@number = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6);
@newname = (mike,@name);# newname is (mike,
#martin, alan, dave,
#andy)

• Array elements are referenced by $array[n], where n is

an integer starts from zero

@junk = (2, 4, 6, 8);

$junk[0]; # referring to 2
$junk[1]; # referring to 4
$junk[2]; # referring to 6
$junk[3]; # referring to 8

What is $#array and $?

Question

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5.2 push() and pop() operators

• An array can acts like a stack
• push() add a new member to an array at the end
• pop() will take the last member of an array off

push(ARRAY,LIST)
appends LIST to the end of ARRAY
pop(ARRAY)
removes the last element of ARRAY, returns element pop off

Examples:

@first = (1, 2, 3);

@second = (4, 5, 6);
push(@first, @second); # @first is now 1, 2, 3,
# 4, 5, 6
$last = pop(@first); #last is now 6

What is @first now?

Question

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5.3 shift() and unshift() operators

• Use shift() and unshift() to add or remove a member
from the beginning of an array
• shift(ARRAY) removes the first element of an array,
returns the element shifted
• unshift(ARRAY,LIST) prepends list to the beginning of the
array

@array = (1, 2, 3, 4);

$first = shift(@array); # $first is 1 and @array
# is (2, 3, 4)
unshift(@array,$first); # $first is 1 and @array
# is (1, 2, 3, 4)

5.4 reverse() operator

• Reverse the order of a list

@array = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5);

@reverseArray = reverse(@array);
#reverseArray is #(5, 4, 3, 2, 1)

5.5 sort() operator

• Sorts elements as single strings in ASCII order

@name = (martin,alan,dave,andy);
@sortName = sort(@name);
# @sortName is alan, andy, dave, martin

How about number? Will it be sorted base of number

Question or ASCII?

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LAB 3
1. Write a program that read 3 different strings and store
in into an array list.
(Hint: use <STDIN>)
print @ARRAY;
print “@ARRAY”;
print @ARRAY.””;
print $#ARRAY;
print $”;

2. Using the existing program from Question 1, display

random string from the list.

Note:
srand; #initialize the random generator
rand(@array); #return a random value between 0 and
#one less than the length of @array

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6 Control Structures

6.1 if-then Statement

• Sequences of statements have to be enclosed with
curly braces { }
• Test expression are evaluated for true-ness
• Type I

if (test_expression) {
statements;
...
}

• Type II

if (test_expression) {
statements;
...
} else {
statements;
...
}

• Type III

if (test_expression) {
statement;
...
} elsif (test_expression) {
statement;
...
} else {
statement;
...
}

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6.2 Loop Statements

6.2.1 while Statement
• The block of code between braces is repeated as long
as the comparison is true

while (test_expression) {
statement;
...
}

6.2.2 for Statement

for (initial_exp; test_exp; incre_exp) {

statement;
...
}

6.2.3 foreach Statement

foreach $var (@list) {

statement;
...
}

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6.2 Loop Controls

6.2.1 last Statement
• Breaks out of the innermost enclosing loop and
resumes statement execution immediately following the
loop

while (test_expression) {
statement1;
if (condition) {
statement2;
last;
}
statement3;
}
# last statement reach here

6.2.2 next Statement

• Doesn’t exit of the loop but will skip the rest of
statements in the loop

while (test_expression) {
statement1;
if (condition) {
statement2;
next;
}
statement3;
# next statement reach here
}

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6.2.3 redo Statement

• Doesn’t exit the loop but jumps to the beginning of the
loop without revaluating the loop test expression

while (test_expression) {
# redo statement come here
statement1;
if (condition) {
statement2;
redo;
}
statement3;
}

6.3 Nested Loop

• We can specify which loop a last, next or redo should
refer by using LABEL

LABEL: while (test_expression) {

for ($i=1;$i<=10; $i++) {
if (condition) {
last LABEL;
}
} # default last reach here
statement;
} # enforce last reach here

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LAB 4
1. Write a program that prints a table of numbers, x, and
their squares, x 2, from 0 to 16 using while loop.

2. Write the program in Question 1 using for loop.

3. Write the program in Question 1 using a foreach loop

and all the values are in an array.

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7 Associative Arrays

7.1 Introduction
• Associative arrays also called hash
• Very similar to array, except that instead of being
indexed by a number with a particular order, they are
indexed by a string
• Denoted by “%”
• Each element of the array is a separate scalar variable,
accessed by the scalar index called the key

%hash = ();

$hash{"a"}{fruit} = "apple";
$hash{"a"}{people} = "boy";

7.2 keys() Operator

• keys(ASSOC_ARRAY) gives a list of the current keys in the
associative array

foreach $key (keys %hash) {

print "$key \n";
} # this will print "a" and "b"

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7.3 values() Operator

• values(ASSOC_ARRAY) gives a list of current values in the
associative array

foreach $value (values %hash) {

print "$value \n";
} # this will print "apple" and "boy"

7.4 each() Operator

• each(ASSOC_ARRAY) returns a key-value pair as a two
element list

while (($key, $value) = each %hash) {

print "$key for $value\n";
} # print "a for apple" , "b for boy"

7.5 delete() Operator

• delete $assoc_array{$key} removes a key-value pair
from associative array

delete $hash{"a"}; # remove "a" from %hash

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8 Basic File I/O

8.1 File Handle

• Filehandle is an I/O connection between the perl
process and the outside world
• Perl provides 3 filehandles STDIN, STDOUT and STDERR as
mentioned earlier
• Filehandle can open files for reading, writing data into
perl program

open (FILEHANDLE, "filename"); #read file

open (FILEHANDLE, ">>filename"); #write file
open (PROCESSHANDLE, "ls -l");
#input from process

• Closed a file handle with close() operator

close (FILEHANDLE);

8.2 Directory Handle

• Directory handle establish a read-only connection
between perl and a directory

opendir (DIRHANDLE, "directory"); # open

#directory for processing
readdir (DIRHANDLE); # return a lists of entries
closedir (DIRHANDLE); # close the handle

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• die() operator
used to display a list and exits the
program when a error occurred

open (FILE, "filename") || die "Can’t open

file\n";

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LAB 5
1. Write a program that reads a series of words with one
word per line until end of file. The print a summary of
how many times each word was seen.
(Hint: use word as key, counter as value)

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9 Directory Access

9.1 Basic
• To change the current directory of a process
chdir ("/etc");# change to the /etc directory
chdir (); # change to home directory

• Perl also support argument expansion

@array = </etc/rc*>; #return all matching
#files list

• Scalar context returns number of matching entries

• Array context returns list of matching entries

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10 File & Dir Manipulation

10.1 Removing Files

• Removing files in perl is done by using ‘unlink’
unlink (LIST);
unlink ("filename");
unlink ("filename1","filename2");
unlink (<filename*>);

10.2 Moving Files

• Moving files in perl is done by using ‘rename’
rename (old_name, new_name);
rename ("a", "/usr/bin/a");

10.3 Making and Removing Directories

• Making directory in perl is done by using ‘mkdir’
mkdir (dirname, mode);
mkdir ("test", 0755); # create a directory
# with read & execute permissions

• Removing directory in perl is done by using ‘rmdir’

rmdir (dirname);
rmdir ("test"); # remove the directory

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10.4 Creating Links

• Creating hardlink in perl is done by using ‘link’

link (FILE, LINK);

link ("test", "t");

• To create a symbolic link

symlink (EXPR, LINK);
symlink ("/dir/file", "symbol");

10.5 Modifying Permissions, Ownership &

Timestamps
• Changing permissions
chmod (PERMISSION, LIST);
chmod (0755, "file1", "file2");

• Changing ownership using ‘chown’ command, the uid

and gid must be numerical
chown (UID, GID, LIST);
chown (1234, 56, "file1");

• The ‘utime’ function can change the access &

modification times on a list of files (similar to touch)

utime (ATIME, MTIME, LIST);

$now = time;
utime ($now, $now, "file1"); # touch file1

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LAB 6
1. Write a program that works like ‘mv’, renaming the first
command-line argument to the second command-line
argument.
(Hint: use @ARGV to get argument)

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11 Regular Expressions

11.1 Definition
• Regex is a pattern to be matched against a string
• $_ is matched by default
• =~ used to match variable strings other than $_

• //used to as standard delimiters to contain pattern to

be matched

11.2 Patterns
• Any single character matches itself
/bob/ # matches word "bob"
• The "." matches any character
/b.b/ # matches word "bxb", "beb"…
• The "*" matches 0 or more of the preceeding character
/b.*b/ # matches word "bb", "bxb", "baaab" …
• The [ ] matches a single character within the bracket
/[acz098]/ # matches any single digit

Regular expression also provide assertion that match

a pre-defined group of string. For example, /\d/
Note matches any single digit or equivalents to /[0-9]/.
Note
Please refer to regex guide for details.

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11.3 Usage
• Search and replace

s/PATTERNS/REPLACEMENT/;
s/a/b; # match a and replace it with b

• Example:
$_ = "thiiiiiiiis x a test";
s/i+/i/; # $_ = "this x a test"
s/x/is/; # $_ = "this is a test"

11.4 split() Operator

• split(/PATTERN/, EXPR, LIMIT) separates a string into an
array of strings. PATTERN specifies the delimiter where
the string will split (whitespace is the default). EXPR is
the string to be separated ( $_ is the default). LIMIT is
optional. If LIMIT is specified, then split() splits the
string into the number of strings the LIMIT specifies.

$_ = "red:blue:green";
($color1,$color2,$color3) = split(/:/);
($color1,$rest) = split(/:/,$_,2);
# $rest = blue:green

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LAB 7
1. Write a program that read the file /etc/passwd, printing
the login name and real name of each user.
(Hint: use split to break up the line up into fields, use
s/// to get rid of the parts of the comment field that are
after the first comma.)

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12 Functions

12.1 Definition
• Functions (also called subroutines) are logical sections
of code that can be called repeatedly
• A subroutine is defined using the sub keyword, as in

sub subroutine_name {
statement1;
...
}

• A subroutine can be called using "&" (version 4) like

&subroutine_name(argument,...);

• Subroutines can be defined anywhere in a program

• Subroutines can invoke other subroutines
• Arguments are stored in the @_ array
• Subroutines use return command to return a value, if
no return value specified, Perl returns the value from
the last statement executed

sub twice
{
($x) = @_;
return ($x * 2);
}

$val = &twice(7); # $val = 14

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• By default, variables in a subroutine are global

• Local variables can be declared for subroutines using
the local() operator

sub square
{
local($x);
($x) = @_;
return ($x * $x);
}

$val = &square(20); # $val = 400

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LAB 8
1. Write a subroutine that calculate the factorial function,
x! , in math. factor(5) = 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 120;
(Hint: Think recursively…)

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