PERL on Unix/Linux

Practical Extraction and Reporting Language

Contents
Introduction
Scalar Variables and Lists
Arrays and Hashes
Operators and Precedence
Conditional statements and Loops
Regular Expressions
Subroutines
File and Directory Handling

History
Developed by Larry Wall in 1987
Derives from the ubiquitous C programming language
and to a lesser extent from sed, awk, the Unix Shell.
PERL was originally designed under Unix, but now also
runs under all OS(Including Windows).

Introduction
What is PERL?
Interpreted language that is optimized for string
manipulation, I/O and system tasks.

Why PERL?
Speed of development Don't have to compile create object
file and then execute.
Power of flexibility of a high programming language.
Easy to use, freely available and portable.
Makes easy jobs easy, without making hard jobs impossible.

Beginning with Perl

perldoc perl gives the list of manual pages as a part of
every Perl installation.
perldoc h gives the brief summary of options available.
perl v gives the version of the Perl the user is using.
To create a Perl program, only a text editor and the perl
interpreter are required.
Perl file ends with .pl (simple.pl)

Beginning with Perl (Contd..)

Execution Command :
perl filename.pl, or
./filename.pl
When Unix has to execute Perl Script It first looks for
#!(Shebang) , it executes the remainder of the line and
passes the name of the script to it as an argument.
#! /usr/bin/perl or #!/usr/local/bin/perl is the command
used to run the Perl Interpreter.
So to start a script we need to add above line as the first line
to make Perl script executable.

Beginning with Perl (Contd..)

The core of Perl is Perl Interpreter the engine that actually
interprets, compiles, and runs Perl scripts.
All Perl programs go through two phases:
a compile phase where the syntax is checked and the
source code, including any modules used, is converted
into bytecode.
a run-time phase where the bytecode is processed into
machine instructions and executed.

Man Pages
Man command used to read the documentation.
Command

Description

perl

Overview (top level)

perldelta

Changes since last version

perlfaq

Frequently asked questions

perltoc

Table of contents for Perl documentation

perlsyn

Perl Syntax

perlop

Operators and precedence

perlre

Perl Regular Expression

perlfunc

Built in functions

perlsub

Subroutines

perlvar

Predefined Variables

Basic Syntax
# is used for commenting the line.

All statements should end with ;.

$_ is the special variable called default variable.

Perl is case sensitive.
Perl program is compiled and run in a single operation.

Simple Programs
Example
#! /usr/local/bin/perl
# Directs to perl interpreter on the system.
print Welcome to perl;
# Prints a message on the output.
This Program displays:
Welcome to perl
Example:
#! /usr/local/bin/perl c
Print welcome to perl;
This Program displays:
Syntax ok

Basic Options
-c

: Check syntax and exit without executing the script.

-v

: Prints the version of perl executable.

-w

: Prints warnings

-e : Used to enter and execute a line of script on the

command line

Standard Files
STDIN

: It is a normal input channel for the script.

STDOUT

: It is an normal output channel.

STDERR

: It is the normal output channel for errors.

Standard Files (Contd..)

Example
#! /usr/local/bin/perl w
print Enter the Text;
$input = <STDIN> ;
#Reads the input and stores in the variable input
Chomp();
#will remove new line character.
Print entered text =$input ;
#Prints the input on the command line\
This Program displays:
Enter the Text
Perl is awesome

entered text =Perl is awesome

#Perl will read this Perl is awesome\n, by

default it will add \n character to your
entered text. So use chomp

Variables
Variables are used to refer data which is held as value.
Perl defines
hashes.

three basic data types: scalars, arrays, and

Scalars :
Holds a single value it may be a string ,number or reference.
Begin with $, followed by a letter then by letters, digits or
underscores.
Example : $var =1
$var = Hello_world
$var=2.65
$3var = 123

# integer
# string
# Decimal number
#Error, Shouldnt start with
#number

Variable Interpolation
Interpolation takes place only in double quotation marks.
Example
#! /usr/local/bin/perl w
$x = 12 ;
print Value of x is $x ;
This Program displays:
Value of x is $x

Example
#! /usr/local/bin/perl w
$x = 12 ;
print Value of x is $x ;
This Program displays:
Value of x is 12

#Assign the value to the variable

#Prints the output

#Single quotation will not interpolate

#(no processing is done) the values

#Assign the value to the variable

#Prints the output

#Double quotation interpolates the values.

#(Variable is replaced by its content )

Integers
Integers are usually expressed as decimal(10) but can be
specified in several different formats.
234
0765
0b1101
0xcae

decimal integer
octal integer
binary integer
hexadecimal integer

Converting a number from one base to another base can be

done using sprintf function.
Variables of different base can be displayed using printf
function

Integers (Contd..)
Example
#! /usr/local/bin/perl w
$bin = 0b1010;
$hex = sprint f %x, $bin;
$oct = sprint f %o ,45;
print binary =$bin \n hexa =$hex \n octal =$oct;
This Program displays:
binary= 1010
hexa = a
octal = 55

Integers (Contd..)
Example
#! /usr/local/bin/perl w
$x = 98 ;
print f ( Value in decimal =%d\n, $x ) ;
print f ( Value in octal=%o\n, $x ) ;
print f ( Value in binary =%b\n, $x ) ;
print f ( Value in hexadecimal=%x\n, $x ) ;
This Program displays:
Value in decimal
=98
Value in octal
=142
Value in binary
=1100010
Value in hexadecimal =62

Escaped Sequences
Character strings that are enclosed in double quotes accept
escape sequences for special characters.
The escape sequences consist of a backslash (\) followed by
one or more characters
Escape Sequence

Description

\b

Backspace

\e

escape

\f

Form feed

\l

Forces the next letter into lowercase

\L

All following letters are lower case

\u

Forces the next letter into upper case

\U

All following letters are upper case

\r

Carriage Return

\v

Vertical Tab

Built-in functions
Function

Description

chomp( )

The chomp() function will remove (usually) any newline

character from the end of a string.
The reason we say usually is that it actually removes any
character that matches the current value of $/ (the input record
separator), and $/ defaults to a newline.
Ex :chomp($text);

Chop( )

The chop() function will remove the last character of a string

(or group of strings) regardless of what that character is.
Ex:chop($text)

Chr ()

Returns the character represented by that number in the

character set
Ex: chr(65 ) gives A.

Ord()

Returns the ASCII numeric value of the character specified by

expression.
Ex:ord(A) gives 65.

Lists
List is a group of scalar used to initialize array or hash.
The elements of a list can be numbers, strings or any other
types of scalar data.
Each element of the Perl lists can be accessed by a numerical
index.
The elements of a list are enclosed in a pair of round
parenthesis and are generally separated by commas.

Lists (Contd..)
Example :
$var = welcome

# normal variable

$var2 = (12,24,kacper, $var,36.48)

#first list

#first list contains 5 elements and two of are strings(kacper, welcome)

$var3 = (12,24,Kacper ,$var ,36.48) #second list
#second list contains 5 elements and two of are strings(kacper, $var)

Lists (Contd..)
Flexible way of defining list is qw (quote word) operator
which helps avoiding to too many quotation marks, but be
cautious if white spaces are there.
Example
#! /usr/local/bin/perl w
print (sachin ,dravid, ganguly, kumble , \n);
print qw(sachin dravid ganguly kumble);
print \n;
print (sachin, dravid , ganguly, anil kumble ,\n);
print( k, a, qw(c p e r ),t , e, c , h );
print \n;
print (sachin ,dravid, ganguly, kumble )[1];
This Program displays:
Sachindravidgangulykumble
Sachindravidgangulykumble
Sachindravidgangulyanil kumble
kacpertech
dravid

Lists (Contd..)
Difference between list and array(or hash) is, array is a
variable that can be initialized with a list.
Range Operator
Defined by symbol ..
Used to create a list from a range of letters or numbers.
Example :
Print (2 .. 4 ** a .. d )
This program displays:
234**abcd

Lists (Contd..)
List functions
A list is joined into a string using join function.
Example:
Print join( ,(perl ,is ,a, scripting ,language));
This program displays:
Perl is a scripting language

A string is splited into a list using split function.

Example:
Print (split |, perl) ;
This program displays:
P|e|r|l

Lists (Contd..)
List functions (Cont..)
map evaluates expression or block for each element of list.
Example:
Print join(, ,(map lc, A, B, C));
This program displays
a, b, c

grep returns a sublist of a list for which a specific criterion

is true.
Example:
Print grep(!/x/ , a, b, x, d);
This program displays:
abd

Arrays
An one dimensional ordered list of scalar variables.
Array provides dynamic storage for a list ,and so can be
shrunk ,grown ,and manipulated by altering values.
Represented using @(at) symbol.
Array without a name is called a list.
Elements of an array are accessed using the index number
(first element has index zero, next has one, and so on)
Each element in an array is a scalar.
$#array holds the last index value in the array.

Arrays (Contd..)
( ) represents the empty list.
Example:
@arr= (perl ,2 , 5.143 );
print @ arr;
This program displays:
perl 2 5.143

#displays all the elements

Example:
@num = (1,2,3,4,5) ;
print \@num has ($#num + 1) elements;
This program displays
@num has 5 elements

#Displays (last index number i.e, 4 + 1) which is

#the length of array

Arrays (Contd..)
Example
#! /usr/local/bin/perl w
@a =(a .. z) ;
@len1 =@a;
@len2 =scalar (@arr);
Print length of a =$len1 \n ;
Print length of a =$len2;

#Assign the array to the variable

#using scalar method

This Program displays:

length of a = 26
length of a = 26
Example
#! /usr/local/bin/perl w
@arr = ( one ,2 ,three ,4.4);
$arr[2] = kacper;
print @arr;
This Program displays:
one 2 kacper 4.4

#second element(three) is replaced by

new element(kacper)

Array Methods
push
Push function adds a value or values to the end of an array.
Example:
@num = (1,2,3,4,5) ;
Push (@num , 6) ;
Print @num ;
This program displays:
123456

#pushes 6 at the end of array

#Displays all the elements of array.

pop

Pop function gets a value or values from an array.

Example:
@num = (1,2,3,4,5) ;
Pop (@num) ;
Print @num ;
This program displays:
1234

#Removes the last element of an array

#Displays all the elements of array.

Array Methods (Contd..)

unshift
unshift function adds a value or values at the start of an
array.
Example:
@num = (1,2,3,4,5) ;
unshift (@num , 6) ;
Print @num ;
This program displays:
612345

#Adds 6 at the beginning of array

#Displays all the elements of array.

Array Methods (Contd..)

shift
shift function shifts off the first value of the array.
Example:
@num = (1,2,3,4,5) ;
$x = shift(@num) ;
Print $x ;
This program displays:
2,3,4,5

#Shifts the first element of an array

#Displays the value stored in x.

Array Methods (Contd..)

map
Array processing method converts one array to another.
Syntax : map Expression(or Block) , list
Runs an expression on each element of an array(like loop)
Locally assigns $_ as an alias to the current array item.
Example:
@small = qw( one ,two, three) ;
@caps = map (uc ,@small); #uc returns an upper case version
print ( @val) ;
This program displays:
ONE TWO THREE

#Displays in upper case

Array Methods (Contd..)

map (Contd..)
Example:
@num = (65, 66,67 ,68) ;
@num2 = map(2*$_ , @num);
@char = map(chr $_ ,@num);
that number
print @num2 \n @char\n;
This program displays:
130 132 134 136
A B C D

# multiplies each element by 2

#chr returns the character represented by

Array Methods (Contd..)

Array Slice
Array slice is a section of an array.
Example:
@num = (1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5) ;
@val = @num[0 ,1];
print join (, , @val) ;
This program displays:
1 ,2

#Array slice of first two element of @num

#Displays first two elements of @num.

Array Methods (Contd..)

Array Splice
Array splicing means adding elements from a list to the
array.
Example:
@num = (1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5) ;
@val =(6 , 7);
splice(@num,4 ,0 , @val) ;
Print join( ,,@num);
This program displays:
1 ,2 ,3 ,4 , 5 , 6 , 7

#Adds the element of @val to @num

#Displays all the elements of @num after

#splicing.

Array Methods (Contd..)

sort
Sorts the elements in the ASCII order.
Defines the global variables $a and $b by default ,using
these we can specify our own sort.
Example:
@str = qw(sachin dravid ganguly kumble) ;
@val =( 56,13,45,11);
@str_sort 1 =sort ( @str);
@val_sort1 =sort (@val);
print @str_sort 1 \n;
Print @val_sort1 ;
This program displays:
dravid ganguly kumble sachin
11 13 45 56

Array Methods (Contd..)

sort (Contd..)
Example:
#!usr /local/bin/perl
@str = qw(sachin dravid ganguly kumble) ;
@val =( 56,13,45,11);
@str_sort2 = sort($a cmp $b);
#sorted in alphabetical order
@str_rev = sort($b cmp $a);
# sorted in reverse order
@val_sort2 = sort($a <=> $b);
# sorted in ascending order
@val_rev = sort($b , < = > $a);
#sorted in descending order
print @str_sort2 \t @str_rev\n;
print @val_sort2 \t val_rev \n;
This program displays:
dravid ganguly kumble sachin
sachin
11 13 45 56
56 45 13 11

kumble ganguly

dravid

Array Methods (Contd..)

join
Perl join function is used to concatenate the elements of an
array or a list into a string, using a separator given by a
scalar variable value.
Syntax : $string = join (EXPR, LIST);
Example:
#!usr/local/bin/perl
@arr = ("mukesh ,"anil ,"prem ,"ratan");
$arr = join " \t", @arr;
print "business Tycoons: $arr\n";
print join "-CEO\t", @arr, "\n;
This program displays:
business Tycoons: mukesh anil prem ratan
mukesh-CEO
anil-CEO
prem-CEO

ratan-CEO

Array Methods (Contd..)

Array Reversal
Reverse function is used to reverse the elements of an array.
Example:
@num = (1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5) ;
@rev =reverse @num ;
Print join( ,, @rev) ;
This program displays:
5 ,4 ,3 ,2 ,1

#Reversing the elements of @num

#Displays all the elements of @rev.

spilt
Split() function is the opposite of join function.
Syntax :LIST = split(/PATTERN/, EXPR, LIMIT)

Array Methods (Contd..)

LIST represents a list, array or hash that is returned by
the split function
PATTERN usually is a regular expression but could be a
single character or a string
EXPR is the string expression that will be split into an
array or a list.
LIMIT is the maximum number of fields the EXPR will be
split into
Example:
!usr/local/bin/perl
$string = gandhi-ind-nehru-ind-sastri-ind-kalam-ind;
@colors = split('ind', $string); print @colors,"\n";
This program displays:
gandhi--nehru--sastri--kalam-

Hashes
An associative array ideal for handling attribute/value pair.
Lists and arrays are ordered and accessed by index ,hashes
are ordered and accessed by specified key.
Represented using % symbol.
First element in each row is called a Key and the second
element is a Value associated with that key.
Example : %coins = (quarter,25, dime,5); or
%coins = ( quarter => 25 , dime => 5);
Key

Value

Hashes (Contd..)
Hah values can be any scalar ,just like an array ,but hash
keys can only be strings.
Example: Printing the hash.
#!usr/local/bin/perl
%hash1 = ( one => 1 ,two => 2 ,three =>3 ,four =>4);
print %hash1;
#we cant use print %hash1;
print @{[hash1]} \n;
@temp = %hash1;
Print @temp;
This program displays:
three3one1two2four4
three 3 one 1 two 2 four 4
three 3 one 1 two 2 four 4

The print order determined by how the Perl chooses to store

internally.

Hashes (Contd..)
Hash can have only scalars as values.
{ } are used to access individual elements of the hash.
Example:
#!usr/local/bin/perl
%hash1 = ( one => 1 ,two => 2 ,three =>3 ,four =>4);
$ele = $hash1(three);
#single key, use scalar
@mul_ele = @hash1(four ,one);
#multiple key ,use array
print single element =$ele ;
print multiple elements =@mul_ele;
This program displays:
single element =3
multiple elements = 4 1

Hashes (Contd..)
keys function can be used to find the no. of keys and list of
entries in a hash.
values function can be used to find the no. of values list of
values in a hash.
Example:
#!usr/local/bin/perl
%hash1 = ( one => 1 ,two => 2 ,three =>3 ,four =>4);
$ele = $hash1(three);
#single key, use scalar
@mul_ele = @hash1(four ,one);
#multiple key ,use array
print single element =$ele ;
print multiple elements =@mul_ele;
This program displays:
single element =3
multiple elements = 4 1

Manipulating Hashes
To add or change the value key we can do like this
$hash1{ three } = PERL .
It will overwrite the previous value if already existing. Otherwise it is
added as a new key.
undef function is used to remove the value of the key, but key will
still exists.
Example: undef $hash1{ two} ;
delete function is used to remove the value as well as key from the
hash.
Example :delete $hash1 {four };

Hash Sorting
Hashes are not ordered and we must not rely on the order in
which we added the hash items Perl uses internally its own
way to store the items.
We can sort hashes either by
function.

key or value ,using sort

Example: Sort by key

%data = ( sachin => 10,
dravid => 19,
dhoni => 7,
rohit
=> 45 );
foreach $key(sort (keys(%data))) {
print \t$key \t $data{$key};}
This program displays:
dhoni
7
dravid

19

rohit

45

sachin

10

Hash Sorting (contd..)

Sort function returns least (or greatest) element among all
elements in the first iteration.
Example: Sort by value
%data = ( sachin => 10,
dravid => 19,
dhoni => 7,
rohit
=> 45 );
foreach $key (sort{$data {$a} <= > $data{$b}} keys %data) {
print \t $key \t\t $data{$key} \n; }
This program displays:
dhoni
7
sachin

10

dravid

19

rohit

45

In the above example first values are compared(using

sort{$data {$a} <= > $data{$b}} ), found least value and that
is assigned to key (using keys% data) in every iteration

Operators
Operators can be broadly divided into 4 types.
Unary operator which takes one operand.
Example: not operator i.e. !
Binary operator which take two operands
Example: addition operator i.e. +
Ternary operator which take three operands.
Example: conditional operator i.e. ?:
List operator which take list operands
Example: print operator

Arithmetic Operators
Operator

Description

Adds two numbers

Subtracts two numbers

Multiplies two numbers

Divides two numbers

++

Increments by one.(same like C)

--

Decrements by one

Gives the remainder (10%2 gives five)

**

Gives the power of the number.

Print 2**5 ; #prints 32.

Shift Operators
shift operators manipulate integer values as binary numbers,
shifting their bits one to the left and one to the right
respectively.
Operator

Description

<<

Left Shift
Print 2 >>3 ; left shift by three positions, prints 8

>>

Right Shift
Print 42 >>2;

#right shift by two positions, prints 10

Repetition Operator.
Ex: print hi x 3;
Output : hihihi
Ex2: @array = (1, 2, 3) x 3; #array contains(1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3)
Ex3 :@arr =(2)x80
#80 element array of value 2

Logical Operators
Logical operators represented by either symbols or names.
These two sets are identical in operation, but have different
precedence.
Operator

Description

&& or AND

Return True if operands are both True

|| or OR

Return True if either operand is True

XOR

Return True if only one operand is True

! or NOT

(Unary) Return True of operand is False

The ! operator has a much higher precedence than even

&& and || .
The not, and, or, and xor operators have the lowest
precedence of all Perl's operators, with not being the
highest of the four

Bitwise Operators
Bitwise operators treat their operands as binary values and
perform a logical operation between the corresponding bits of
each value.
Operator

Description

&

Bitwise AND

Bitwise OR

Bitwise XOR

Bitwise NOT

Comparison Operators
The comparison operators are binary, returning a value
based on a comparison of the expression
Operator

Description

<

Lessthan

>

Greaterthan

==

Equality

<=

Lessthan or equal

>=

Greaterthan or equal

<= >

It does not return a Boolean value. It returns

-1 if left is less than right
0 if left is equal to right
1 if left is greater than right

!=

Inequality operator

Comparison Operators on strings

String

Description

eq

Return True if operands are equal

le

Return True if left operand is less than right

ge

Return True if left operand is greater or equal to right

gt

Return True if left operand is less than or equal to right

gt

Return True if left operand is greater than right

cmp

It does not return a Boolean value. It returns

-1 if left is less than right
0 if left is equal to right
1 if left is greater than right

ne

Return True if operands are not equal

.(dot)

Concatenation operator. It takes two strings and joins them

Ex: print System .Verilog
It prints SystemVerilog.

Binding operator
The binding operator ,=~ ,binds a scalar expression into a
pattern match.
String operations like s/// ,m//,tr/// work with $_ by default.
By using these operators you can work on scalar variable
other than $_ .
The value returned from =~ is the return value of the regular
expression function, returns undef if match failed.
The !~ operator performs a logical negation of the returned
value for conditional expressions, that is 1 for failure and
'' for success in both scalar and list contexts.

Conditional Statements
if Statement
if keyword to execute a statement block based on the evaluation of an
expression or to choose between executing one of two statement
blocks based on the evaluation of an expression
Example :$firstVar = 2;
if ($var == 1) {

print we are in first if \n;

elsif( $var ==2) { print we are in second if \n;

else { print we are in third if\n; }
This program displays:
we are in second if

Conditional Statements (Contd..)

until Loops
Until loops are used to repeat a block of statements while some
condition is false.
Example :- do until loop
$firstVar = 10;
do {
print("inside: firstVar = $firstVar\n");
$firstVar++;
} until ($firstVar < 2);
print("outside: firstVar = $firstVar\n");

Conditional Statements (Contd..)

do-until Loops
Example :- until loop
$firstVar = 10;
until ($firstVar < 20) {
print("inside: firstVar = $firstVar\n");
$firstVar++;
};
print("outside: firstVar = $firstVar\n");
This program displays:
outside: firstVar = 10

Conditional Statements (Contd..)

for Loops
Example : - for loops
for ($firstVar = 0; $firstVar < 100; $firstVar++)
{
print("inside: firstVar = $firstVar\n");
}
This program will display:
inside: firstVar = 0
inside: firstVar = 1
...
inside: firstVar = 98
inside: firstVar = 99

Conditional Statements (Contd..)

foreach Loops
The foreach statement is used solely to iterate over the elements of an
array. It is very handy for finding the largest element, printing the
elements, or simply seeing if a given value is a member of an array.
Example :- foreach loop
@array = (1..5, 5..10);
print("@array\n");
foreach (@array) {
print("@array\n");
This program displays:
1 2 3 4 5 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 ** ** 6 7 8 9 10

$_ = ** " if ($_ == 5);

Jump Keywords
The last Keyword
The last keyword is used to exit from a statement block.
Example :- last
@array = ("A".."Z");
for ($index = 0; $index < @array; $index++) {
if ($array[$index] eq "T") {
{

last

print("$index\n");
This program displays:
19

Jump Keywords (Cont..)

The next Keyword
The next keyword use to skip the rest of the statement block and start
the next iteration.
Example : - next keyword
@array = (0..9);
print("@array\n");
for ($index = 0; $index < @array; $index++) {
if ($index == 3 || $index == 5) {
next;
}

} $array[$index] = "*";

print("@array\n");

This program displays:

0123456789
* * *3 *5 ****

Jump Keywords (Cont..)

The redo Keyword
The redo keyword causes Perl to restart the current statement block.
Example :- redo
print("What is your name? ");
$name = <STDIN>;
chop($name);
if (! length($name)) {
print("Msg: Zero length input. Please try again\n");
redo;
} print("Thank you, " . uc($name) . "\n"); }

Regular Expressions
Regular expression(regexps) is simply a string that describes
the pattern (example for pattern ,to find files in a directory
which ends with .sv i.e. ls *.sv )
Used for finding and extracting patterns within the text.
The role of regexp engine is to take a search pattern and
apply it to the supplied text.
The following operators use regular expressions.
Matching Operator (m//)
Substitution Operator(s///)
Transliteration(Translation) Operator(tr///)

The Matching Operator (m//)

The matching operator (m//) is used to find patterns in
strings.
Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$_ = success is a progressive journey;
$var = success is not a destination;
If( /success/) {
# the initial m is optional
print String success Found; }
If ( $var =~ /destination/) { print String destination Found; }
This program displays:
String success Found
String destination Found

The Matching Operator (Contd..)

When regular expression is enclosed in slashes(/success/), $_
is tested against the regular expression ,returning TRUE if
there is a match , false otherwise

Finding multiple matches

Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$txt =winn-ers see ga-in, lose-rs see pa-in
while ($txt =~ m/-/g) {
print Found another
-\n ;}
This program displays:
found another found another found another -

The Substitution Operator (s///)

The substitution operator (s///) is used to change strings.
Syntax :LVALUE =~ s/PATTERN/REPLACEMENT/
The return value of an s/// operation (in scalar and list
contexts alike) is the number of times it succeeded (which can
be more than once if used with the /g modifier).
On failure, since it substituted zero times, it returns false
(""), which is numerically equivalent to 0.
If PATTERN is a null string, the last successfully executed
regular expression is used instead

The Substitution Operator (Contd..)

Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$text = winners see gain, losers see pain;
$test =~s/winners/WINNERS/;
print $text;
This program displays:
WINNERS see gain, losers see pain
Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
@arr = qw(sachin dravid ganguly sachin);
foreach(@arr){
# for(@arr) and s/sachin/10/g for @arr
s/sachin/10/; }
do same thing
print "\n@arr;
This program displays:
10 dravid ganguly 10

The Substitution Operator (Contd..)

Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
@old = qw(sachin-bharat dravid-bharat ganguly-bharat kumble-ind);
for (@new = @old) { s/bharat/india/ }
print "@olds\n;
print "@new\n";
This program displays:
sachin-bharat dravid-bharat
sachin-india
dravid-india

ganguly-bharat kumble-ind
ganguly-india
kumble-ind

Using Modifiers with m// and s///

Modifier

Description

g(m//g or s///g)

Works globally to perform all possible operations.

Ignores alphabetic case

Ignores white space in pattern and allows

comments.

gc

Doesnt reset the search position after a failed

match

Lets the . Character match newlines.

Lets ^ and $ match embedded \n characters

Evaluate right hand side as an expression

Compiles the pattern only once

The Translation Operator (tr///)

Syntax :
LVALUE =~ tr/SEARCHLIST/REPLACEMENTLIST/
It scans a string, character by character, and replaces each
occurrence of a character found in SEARCHLIST (which is
not a regular expression)with the corresponding character
from REPLACEMENTLIST
It returns the number of characters replaced or deleted.
If no string is specified via the =~ or !~ operator, the $_ string
is altered.

The Translation Operator (Contd..)

Modifier

Description

c (tr///c)

Complements the search list.

Deletes unreplaced characters

Deletes duplicate replaced characters

Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$text = winners see gain, losers see pain;
$count = ($test =~tr/e/E/);
print $text;
Print \n no..of replacements =$count;
This program displays:
winnErs sEE gain,losErs sEE pain
no..of replacements =6

The Translation Operator (Contd..)

Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$text = winners see gain, losers see pain;
$count = ($test =~tr/e/E/c);
print $text;
#except e all other characters
Print \n no..of replacements =$count;
# are replaced.
This program displays:
EEEEeEEEEeeEEEEEEEEEeEEEEeeEEEEE
no..of replacements =26

Different Pattern Delimiters

If the pattern contains lots of slash characters(/) ,we can also
use different pattern delimiter with the pattern.
Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$var = "winners / see / gain,losers / see pain";
If( $var =~ m|see|) {
# match with pipes
print String see Found\n; }
If ( $var =~ m ?gain?) {
#match with question marks.
print String gain Found; }
This program displays:
String see Found
String gain Found

Perl also allows paired characters like

brackets.viz { } ,( ), < >,[ ].
Ex: $var =~s{gain}{GAIN};

braces

and

The Parts of regular Expressions

In general regular expression can be made up of following
parts.

Characters
Character Classes
Alternative Match Patterns
Quantifiers
Assertions

Characters
In regular expression any single character matches itself,
unless it is a metacharacters with special meaning.
Beside normal characters, Perl defines special characters
that you can use in regular expression.
These character must start with backslash.(Otherwise Perl
treats it as a normal character).
Character
. (period)

Description
Used to match any single character except newline
character
Ex :$var1 = ~ /r.n/ # will match run , ran, ron

Characters (Contd..)
character

Description

\d

It is equivalent to [0 - 9]
Matches any digit.
Ex1 : $var =~ /\d/ # Will match any digit.

\D

It is equivalent to [^0 - 9]
Matches any non-digit.
Ex1 : $var =~ /\D/ # Will match any non-digit.

Characters (Contd..)
character

Description

\w

It is equivalent to [0-9a-zA-Z_]
Matches a word character allowable in Perl variable
name.
i.e. Match any 'word' or alphanumeric character, which is
the set of all upper and lower case letters, the numbers
0..9 and the underscore character _
Ex :if ( $var =~ /\w/)

\W

It is equivalent to [^0-9a-zA-Z_]
Matches any non-word characters. Inverse of \w
Ex :if ($var =~ /\W)

Characters (Contd..)
character

Description

\s

It is equivalent to [ \t\n\r]
Matches any white space character.
i.e. a space ,a tab ,a newline ,a return
Ex :if ($var =~ /\s/)

\S

It is equivalent to [^ \t\n\r]
Matches any non-white space character.
Ex :if ($var =~ /\S/)

Characters (Contd..)
character

Description

\Q

Quote(disable) pattern metacharacters until \E found.

Ex:#usr/local/bin/perl
$var = success is not a *;
If($var =~/*/){ print found in 1st if ; }
If($var ~=/\Q*\E) { print found in 2nd if ; }
It will display :
found in 2nd if

\E

End case modification.

Characters (Contd..)
character

Description

\U

Change the following characters to upper case until a \E

sequence is encountered.
Ex:$var = SUCCESS is not a * ;
If($var =~/success/){ print found in 1st if ; }
If($var ~=/\Usuccess\E) { print found in 2nd if ; }
It will display:
found in 2nd if

\L

Change the following characters to lower case until a \E

sequence is encountered. Same like \U

Characters (Contd..)
character

Description

\u

Change the next character to uppercase.

Ex:#usr/local/bin/perl
$var = SUCCESS is not a *;
If($var =~/\us/){ print found only s ; }
If($var ~=/\usu/) { print found su ; }
It will display :
found only s

\l

Change the next character to lower case.

Character Classes
A character class allows a set of possible characters, rather
than just a single character, to match at a particular point in
a regular expression.
Character classes are denoted by brackets [...], with the set of
characters to be possibly matched inside.
Matches one occurrence of any character inside the bracket
Ex 1: $var =~ /w[aoi]nder/

# will match wander, wonder,

winder

Character Classes (Contd..)

If you use ^ as the first character in a(if you use ^ outside
the character class[ ] it works as anchor) character class,
then that character class matches any character not in the
class.
Ex1:$var = ~/w[^aoi]nder
# will look for w followed by something that is
# none of a or o or i.

Alternative Match Patterns

Alternative Match Pattern means that you can specify a
series of alternatives for a pattern using | to separate them.
|(called alternation) is equivalent to an or in regular
expression. It is used to give a chance.
Ex: $var2 =~ /hope|trust/

# will match either hope or trust

Alternatives are checked from left to right, so the first

alternative that matches is the one thats used.

Grouping Alternatives
Grouping[ ( ) ] allows parts of a regular expression to be
treated as a single unit.
Parts of a regular expression are grouped by enclosing them
in parentheses.
Used to group similar terms by their common characters and
only specified the differences.
Example : $var2 =~ /(while |for)loop/
# will match either while loop or for loop

Grouping Alternatives (Contd..)

The pairs of parentheses are numbered from left to right by
the positions of the left parentheses.
Perl places the text that is matched by the regular expression
in the first pair of parentheses into the variable $1, and the
text matched by the regular expression in the second pair of
parentheses into $2,and so on.
Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
my $text= "Testing";
if ($text =~ /((T|N)est(ing|er))/) {
print " \$1 = $1 \t \$2 = $2 \t \$3 = $3 \n ";
This program displays:
$1 = Testing
$2 = T

$3 = ing

Grouping Alternatives (Contd..)

There are three pairs of parentheses in the above example.
The first one is that which surrounds the whole regular
expression, hence $1 evaluates to the whole matched text,
which is Testing.
The match caused by the second pair of parentheses (T|N),
which is T, is assigned to $2.
The third pair of parentheses (ing|er) causes $3 to be
assigned the value ing.

Quantifiers
Quantifiers says how many times something may match,
instead of the default of matching just once.
You can use quantifier to specify that a pattern must match a
specific number of times.
Quantifiers in a regular expression are like loops in a
program.

Quantifiers (Contd..)
character

Description

It indicates that the string Immediately to the left should

be matched zero or more times in order to be evaluated
as a true.
Ex1 : $var =~ /st*/ # Will match for the strings like
st, sttr, sts , star, son .
The regexp a* will search for a followed by either a
or any other character. It matches all strings which
contain the character a.

It indicates that the string Immediately to the left should

be matched one or more times in order to be evaluated as
a true.
Ex:$var =~ /st*/ # Will match for the strings like st,
sttr, sts ,star , but not son.

Quantifiers (Contd..)
character

Description

{}

It indicates that how many times the string immediately

to the left should be matched.
{n} should match exactly n times.
{n,} should match at least n times
{n, m} Should match at least n times but not more
than m times.
Ex : $var =~ /mn{2,4}p/ # will match mnnp,
mnnnp, mnnnnp .

It indicates that the string Immediately to the left should

be matched zero or one times in order to be evaluated as
a true.
Ex : $var =~ /st?r/ # will match either star or sttr.
$var = ~/comm?a/ # will match either coma or
comma

Quantifiers (Contd..)
Quantifiers are greedy by default, which means they
will try to match as much as they can.
Ex :$str =they are players, arent they ?
$str =~s/.*are/were/;
print $str;
It will print :werent they ?
Perl will use the *. Preceding are to match all the
characters upto the last are in the str.

Making Quantifiers Less Greedy

To make Quantifiers less greedy that is ,to match the
minimum number of times possible you follow the quantifier
with a ?

*?

+?
??
{n}?
{n,}?
{m,n}

Matches zero or more times.

Matches one or more times.
Matches zero or one times.
Matches n times.
Matches at least n times
Matches at least n times but more than m
times.

Making Quantifiers Less Greedy (Contd.)

Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$text = They are players ,arent they?;
$text =~s/.*?are/were/;
print $text;
This program displays:
Were players ,arent they?
Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$txt = no, these are the documents, over there.;
$txt = ~ s/the(.*?)e/those/;
print $txt;
This program displays:
no, those are the documents, over there

Assertions
Assertions (also called anchors) used to match conditions
within a string, not actual data.
Assertions are zero width because they do not consume any
characters when they match.

Anchor

Description

^(caret)

Appears at the beginning of the pattern and finds for a match at

beginning of the line
Ex : $var =~ /^su/ # Will match the strings those are starting with
su i.e. . sun, success, super ..

Assertions (Contd..)
character

Description

Appears at the end of the pattern and finds for a match

at end of the line
Ex : $var =~ /at$/ # Will match the strings those ends
with at i.e. . cat, rat , beat

\Z

Matches only at the end of a string, or before a new line

at the end.
It matches at the end of the match text, before the
newline if any is present. Otherwise it is the same as \z.

\z

Matches only at the end of string.

Assertions (Contd..)
Character

Description

\A

Matches only at the beginning of a string.(Similar to ^)

\G

It applies when we use a regular expression to produce multiple

matches using the g pattern modifier.
It re-anchors the regular expression at the end of the previous
match, so that previously matched text takes no part in further
matches.
Works only with /g .

The difference between ^ and \A is that when you use the

m multiline-modifier, ^ matches the beginning of every
line, but \A retains its original meaning and matches only at
the very beginning of the whole string.

Assertions (Contd..)
Word Boundaries
\b matches on a word boundary.
This occurs whenever a word character is adjacent to a nonword character .
It is equivalent to \w\W|\W\w .
Within character classes \b represents backspace rather
than a word boundary, just as it normally does in any doublequoted string.

Assertions (Contd..)
Word Boundaries
\B matches on a non-word boundary .
This occurs whenever two word characters or two non-word
characters fall adjacent to each other.
It is equivalent to \w\w|\W\W.

Assertions (Contd..)
Word Boundaries
Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$text = "one, ****, three, four";
$text1 = "one,****,three, four";
foreach ($text =~ /\b\w+\b/g){
print $_, "\t";
}
print "\n using \\B\n";
foreach ($text1 =~ /\B\w+\B/g){
print $_, "\t";
}
This program displays:
one three four
using \B
n
hre ou

# * is not a word
# character

Regular Expressions-Examples(1)
character

Description

$var =~m/^\./

Will match for dot(.) at the beginning of the

statement.
^ Used to match at the beginning of the line ,dot is
a meta character so it has to preceded by \

$var =~ /\w+/

Will match a word, a nonempty sequence of

alphanumeric characters and underscores such as
trust , 12bar8 and kac_per.

$var
=~/start\s*end/

The strings start and end optionally separated by

any amount of white space (spaces, tabs, newlines).

Regular Expressions-Examples(2)
character

Description

$var =~/o\.m/

It will match exactly o.m

$var =~
Will match either bluecolor or bluecolour
/blue(colo(ur|r))/

$var =~ s/\s+$// Removes(trims) the Trailing white space.

Regular Expressions-Examples(3)
character

Description

$var =~ s/^\s+//

Removes(trims) the leading white space.

Ex:$txt =
trust in god;
$txt ==~ s/^\s+//
Print $txt;
It will print : trust in god

$var =~
m/(\d+)/

Will match complete first number.

Ex :$txt = "day = 86400s or 1440 mor 24 h";
if($txt =~ m/(\d+)/){
print "\n\nFirst Number is $1";
}
It will print :
First Number is 86400

Subroutines
Subroutine is a separate body of code designed to perform a
particular task. It is same as function in C language.
The Idea behind subroutines is that old programming dictum
divide and conquer.
Subroutines allow you to divide your code into manageable
parts, which makes overall programming easier to handle.
Perl allows you to create subroutines using the sub control
structure

Subroutines (Contd..)
Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$v1 =36;
large_small();
#subroutine call before definition , parentheses must
sub large_small{
if($v1 >40) { print "value is bigger than 40\n"; }
else{ print "value is smaller than 40\n";
} }
$v1 =45;
large_small;

# subroutine call after definition , parentheses are

# optional

This program displays:

value is smaller than 40
value is bigger than 40

Scope of variable
Perl variables have global package scope by default.
When we change a variable value in subroutine, well be
changing it in the rest of the program by mistake as well.
We can create a variables that are entirely local to subroutine
by using keyword local or my.
They can have same name as global variable and not affect
those global variables at all.

Scope of variable (Contd..)

Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$v1 =36;
incr();
print "value of v1 =$v1\n";
sub incr {
my $var =$v1;
print "value before incrementing =$var\n";
$var++;
print "value after incrementing =$var\n";
}
This program displays:
value before incrementing =36
value after incrementing =37
value of v1 =36

Parameters and Arguments

You can pass values to subroutine by placing in parentheses.
(ex: incr($v1);)
When you pass values to a subroutine ,those values are
stored in a special array named @_.
Beside accepting passed values, subroutines can also return
values using return keyword.

Parameters and Arguments (Contd..)

Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$sum =add(10,20);
print "sum =$sum\n;
sub add {
($val1, $val2) = @_;
return $val1+$val2;

This program displays:

sum =30

Perl returns the last value in a sub routine so you can omit
the return keyword .
In the above example $val1+$val2 gives the same.

Parameters and Arguments (Contd..)

Different ways of reading arguments passed to subroutine
Sub add
{
$val1 =$_[0];
$val2 =$_[1];
}
Sub add
{
$val1 =shift@_ ; (or) shift ;
$val2 =shift@_ ; (or) shift ;
}
In a subroutine ,shift uses @_ by default so you can use
shift directly.

Recursion
Recursion happens when a subroutine calls itself, either
directly, or indirectly, via another subroutine
Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl0
$fact = fact(6);
print "factorial of given number =$fact\n;
sub fact {
local $val =shift(@_);
if($var ==0) {
return 1; }
elsif($val==1) {
return $val ; }
else{
return $val*fact($val-1);
This program displays:
factorial of given number =720

}}

Subroutines Examples(1)
Passing Lists
Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
@small= qw(sachin dravid ganguly );
@big =case_convert(@small);
print "@big";
sub case_convert {
@low =@_;
@caps =map(uc ,@low);
}
This program displays:
SACHIN DRAVID GANGULY

Subroutines Examples(2)
Nested subroutines
Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
call();
sub call{
display();
sub display {
print "you are in inner subroutine\n" ;
print "you are in outer subroutine\n" ;
}
print "you are in main\n" ;
This program displays:
you are in inner subroutine
you are in outer subroutine
you are in main

Pass by Reference
In general passing arrays or hashes flattens their elements
into one long list, so its a problem if you want to send two or
more distinct arrays or hashes.
To preserve integrity, you can pass references to arrays or
hashes instead.
References can be created by using a backslash (\) operator
on a variable. It is similar to address-of (&)operator in C.
\$var
\@arr
\%hash

Scalar Reference
Array Reference
Hash Reference

Pass by Reference (Contd..)

If you pass \$a (a reference to the $a scalar variable) to a
subroutine, then in the subroutine the variable that receives
that parameter receives a reference (or a "pointer")
pointing to the $a scalar
Dereferencing references(Using prefixes $, @ ,% ,->)
$$ref_var Scalar Dereference
$$ref_arr Array Dereference #array is copied
into scalar( ref_arr)
$$ref_hash Hash Dereference

Pass by Reference (Contd..)

Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
@arr = qw(America England france);
print "before: arr = " . join(', ', @arr) . "\n";
change (\@arr);
print "after: arr
= " . join(', ', @arr) . "\n;
sub change {
my $ref_arr =shift;
$$ref_arr[0]= "China";
@{$ref_arr}[1] ="India";
# { } creates a block.
$ref_arr ->[2] ="Japan";
# -> called arrow operator.
}
This program displays:
before: arr = America, England, france
after: arr = China, India, Japan

Returning by Reference
If you return two arrays normally, their values are flattened
into one long list. If you return references to arrays, you can
deference those arrays and reach the original arrays.
Example :
#!usr/local/bin/perl
sub get_strings{
@str1 = qw(Asia Austrelia Africa);
@str2 =qw(Brown White Black);
return \@str1 ,\@str2;
}
($ref_str1 ,$ref_str2) =get_strings;
print "@$ref_str1 \n";
print "@$ref_str2 \n";
This program displays:
Asia Austrelia Africa
Brown White Black

You can get lot of material on references that comes with

Perl( perldoc perl)

File Handling
A filehandle is nothing more than a nickname for the files
you intend to use in your PERL scripts and programs.
Filehandles are a connection between our program and an
external data source
Filehandles in Perl are a distinct data type.
STDIN or standard input represents the default input
filehandle and usually connected to the keyboard.
STDOUT or Standard output represents the default output
filehandle
and usually connected to the console
device(screen)

File Handling (Contd..)

STDERR or Standard error is the default output error
filehandle and usually connected to screen.

Opening a file
To open a file ,use the open function.
Syntax : open FILEHANDLE ,MODE,LIST
open FILEHANDLE ,EXPR
open FILEHANDLE
The open function takes a filename and creates the handle
for it.

File Handling (Contd..)

Opening a file (Contd..)
The open function returns a true(nonzero) value if successful
otherwise it returns undefined value.
The filehandle will create in either case but if the call to
open fails, the filehandle will be unopened and unassigned.
If the open fails the reason is stored in special variable
$! ,which produces a message in string context.
File handling is most error prone ,so use open and die
together.
Ex: open (HANDLE, $filename) or die "Can't open $filename:
$!\n";

File Handling (Contd..)

Opening a file (Contd..)
open understands total six modes.
MODE

Symbol

Description

Read

<

Open file handle for read access only.

Ex :open FILHND <$file;
This is the default mode and so the < prefix is
usually optional

Write

>

Open the file for write access only.

Ex :open FILHND >$file;
If the file doesnt exist then it is created and
opened.
If the file does exist then it overwrite the existing
contents

File Handling (Contd..)

Opening a file (Contd..)
MODE

Symbol

Description

Append

>>

Open the file for write access only.

Ex :open FILHND >>$file;
If the file doesnt exist then it is created and
opened.
If the does exists then it appends that file.

Readupdate

+<

Open the file for read and write access.

Ex :open FILHND +<$file;
If the file does not exist then the open fails.
If the file does exist then it overwrite(contents are
preserved for reading) the existing contents.

File Handling (Contd..)

Opening a file (Contd..)
MODE

Symbol

Description

Writeupdate

>+

Open the file for read and write access.

Ex :open FILHND >+$file;
If the file doesnt exist then it is created.
If the file does exist then it is truncated and its
existing contents are lost.(usually used for opening
a new file)

Appendupdate

>>+

Open the file for read and write access only.

Ex :open FILHND >>+$file;
If the file doesnt exist then it is created and
opened.
If the file does exist then both read and write
commence from the end of the file.

File Handling (Contd..)

Reading Lines
Example :
exam.txt :: winners dont do different things.
winners do things differently..
success is not a destination.
Perl Script:
#!usr/local/bin/perl
open FILE, "exam.txt" or die $!;
$lineno;
while(<FILE>){
print $lineno++," \t";
This program displays:
0
winners dont do different things.
1
winners do things differently.
2
success is not a destination.

print "$_";

File Handling (Contd..)

< > is called readline or diamond operator.
In the above example while (<FILE>) is equivalent to
while(defined($_=<FILE>).
Above statement will reads a line from file and assigns it to
$_ and checks whether it is defined or not.
If it is not defined ,probably at the end of the file so it will
comes out of the loop.

File Handling (Contd..)

Perl provides a special handle called ARGV.
It reads the files from the command line and opens them all if
specified.
It will read from Standard input(STDIN) if nothing is
specified on the command line.

If you don't specify anything in the angle brackets,

whatever is in @ARGV is used instead.

File Handling Examples(1)

Command line passing
Example :
exam.txt :: winners dont do different things.
success is not a destination.
Perl Script:
#!usr/local/bin/perl
$match =do;
while(){
If(/$match/) {
print FOUND\n;
}
else
{
printNOT FOUND; } }
This program displays:
FOUND
NOT FOUND

File Handling Examples(2)

Command line passing
Example :
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
print "Filename: ";
my $infile = <>; chomp $infile;
print "New name: ";
my $outfile = <>;
chomp $outfile;
open IN, $infile;
open OUT, "> $outfile";
print OUT <IN>;
close IN; # syntax :: close <filehandle>
close OUT;
This program displays:
perl filename.pl exam.txt
Filename: exam.txt
New name:copy_exam.txt

#it will create this file.

File Handling Examples(3)

Command line passing
Example :if (open (LOGFILE, ">>message .log"))
{
print LOGFILE ("This is message number 3.\n");
print LOGFILE ("This is message number 4.\n");
close (LOGFILE); #! close function
}
This program displays:
This is message number 1.
This is message number 2
This is message number 3.
This is message number 4.

print, printf, and write Functions

print function writes to the file specified, or to the current
default file if no file is specified.
Ex: print ("Hello, there!\n");
print OUTFILE ("Hello, there!\n");
write function uses a print format to send formatted output
to the file that is specified or to the current default file.
Ex : write (CD_REPORT);

Directories Handling
print function writes to the file specified, or to the current
default file if no file is specified.
Ex: print ("Hello, there!\n");
print OUTFILE ("Hello, there!\n");
write function uses a print format to send formatted output
to the file that is specified or to the current default file.
Ex : write (CD_REPORT);

Directories Handling (Contd..)

To create a new directory, call the function mkdir.

Syntax :mkdir (dirname, permissions);

Ex:

mkdir ("/u/public /newdir ", 0777);

To set a directory to be the current working directory, use the

function chdir.

Syntax: chdir (dirname);

Ex :chdir ("/u/public/newdir");

Directories Handling (Contd..)

To open the directory (already existing) ,use the function
opendir

Syntax : opendir (dirvar, dirname);

Ex: opendir (DIR, "/u/kacper/mydir");

To close an opened directory, use the closedir function

Syntax: chdir (dirname);

Ex : closedir (mydir);

ThanQ