Introduction to Perl

Part I

By: Cédric Notredame

(Adapted from BT McInnes)
What is Perl?
 Perl is a Portable Scripting Language
 No compiling is needed.
 Runs on Windows, UNIX, LINUX and cygwin

 Fast and easy text processing capability

 Fast and easy file handling capability
 Written by Larry Wall
 “Perl is the language for getting your job done.”

 Too Slow For Number Crunching

 Ideal for Prototyping

2
 How to Access Perl

 To install at home
 Perl Comes by Default on Linux, Cygwin, MacOSX
 www.perl.com Has rpm's for Linux
 www.activestate.com Has binaries for Windows

 Latest Version is 5.8

 To check if Perl is working and the version number
 % perl -v

3
 Resources For Perl
 Books:
 Learning Perl
 By Larry Wall
 Published by O'Reilly
 Programming Perl
 By Larry Wall,Tom Christiansen and Jon Orwant
 Published by O'Reilly
 Web Site
 http://safari.oreilly.com
 Contains both Learning Perl and Programming Perl
in ebook form
4
 Web Sources for Perl
 Web
 www.perl.com
 www.perldoc.com
 www.perl.org
 www.perlmonks.org

5
 The Basic Hello World Program

 which perl
 pico hello.pl
 Program:

#! /…path…/perl -w
print “Hello World!\n”;

 Save this as “hello.pl”

 Give it executable permissions
 chmod a+x hello.pl
 Run it as follows:
 ./hello.pl

6
“Hello World” Observations
 “.pl” extension is optional but is commonly used
 The first line “#!/usr/local/bin/perl” tells UNIX where
to find Perl
 “-w” switches on warning : not required but a really
good idea

7
Variables and Their Content
Numerical Literals
 Numerical Literals
 6 Integer
 12.6 Floating Point
 1e10 Scientific Notation
 6.4E-33 Scientific Notation
 4_348_348 Underscores instead of
commas for long numbers

9
 String Literals
 String Literals
 “There is more than one way to do it!”
 'Just don't create a file called -rf.'
 “Beauty?\nWhat's that?\n”
 “”
 “Real programmers can write assembly in any
language.”

 Quotes from Larry Wall

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 Types of Variables
 Types of variables:
 Scalar variables : $a, $b, $c
 Array variables : @array
 Hash variables : %hash
 File handles : STDIN, STDOUT, STDERR

 Variables do not need to be declared

 Variable type (int, char, ...) is decided at run time
 $a = 5; # now an integer
 $a = “perl”; # now a string

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Operators on Scalar Variables
 Numeric and Logic Operators
 Typical : +, -, *, /, %, ++, --, +=, -=, *=, /=, ||, &&, ! ect
…
 Not typical: ** for exponentiation

 String Operators
 Concatenation: “.” - similar to strcat

$first_name = “Larry”;
$last_name = “Wall”;
$full_name = $first_name . “ “ . $last_name;

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 Equality Operators for Strings
 Equality/ Inequality : eq and ne

$language = “Perl”;
if ($language == “Perl”) ... # Wrong!
if ($language eq “Perl”) ... #Correct

 Use eq / ne rather than == / != for strings

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 Relational Operators for Strings
 Greater than
 Numeric : > String : gt
 Greater than or equal to
 Numeric : >= String : ge
 Less than
 Numeric : < String : lt
 Less than or equal to
 Numeric : <= String : le

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String Functions
 Convert to upper case
 $name = uc($name);
 Convert only the first char to upper case
 $name = ucfirst($name);

 Convert to lower case

 $name = lc($name);
 Convert only the first char to lower case
 $name = lcfirst($name);

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 A String Example Program
 Convert to upper case
$name = uc($name);
 Convert only the first char to upper case
 $name = ucfirst($name);

 Convert to lower case

$name = lc($name);
 Convert only the first char to lower case
 $name = lcfirst($name);
#!/usr/bin/perl
$var1 = “larry”;
$var2 = “moe”;
$var3 = “shemp”;
……
Output: Larry, MOE, sHEMP

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A String Example Program
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
$var1 = “larry”;
$var2 = “moe”;
$var3 = “shemp”;

print ucfirst($var1); # Prints 'Larry'

print uc($var2); # Prints 'MOE'
print lcfirst(uc($var3)); # Prints 'sHEMP'

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 Variable Interpolation

 Perl looks for variables inside strings and replaces

them with their value
$stooge = “Larry”
print “$stooge is one of the three stooges.\n”;
Produces the output:
Larry is one of the three stooges.
 This does not happen when you use single quotes
print '$stooge is one of the three stooges.\n’;
Produces the output:
$stooge is one of the three stooges.\n
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Character Interpolation
 List of character escapes that are recognized
when using double quoted strings
 \n newline
 \t tab
 \r carriage return

 Common Example :

 print “Hello\n”; # prints Hello and then a return

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 Numbers and Strings are
Interchangeable
 If a scalar variable looks like a number and Perl
needs a number, it will use it as a number

$a = 4; # a number
print $a + 18; # prints 22
$b = “50”; # looks like a string, but ...
print $b – 10; # will print 40!

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Control Structures: Loops and Conditions
If ... else ... statements

if ( $weather eq “Rain” )
{
print “Umbrella!\n”;
}
elsif ( $weather eq “Sun” ) {
print “Sunglasses!\n”;
}
else {
print “Anti Radiation Armor!\n”;
}

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 Unless ... else Statements
 Unless Statements are the opposite of if ... else
statements.

unless ($weather eq “Rain”) {

print “Dress as you wish!\n”;
}
else {
print “Umbrella!\n”;
}

 And again remember the braces are required!

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 While Loop
 Example :
$i = 0;
while ( $i <= 1000 )
{
print “$i\n”;
$i++;
}

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 Until Loop
 The until function evaluates an expression
repeatedly until a specific condition is met.

 Example:
$i = 0;
until ($i == 1000) {
print “$i\n”;
$i++;
}
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For Loops

 Syntax 1:
 for ( $i = 0; $i <= 1000; $i=$i+2 )

{
print “$i\n”;
}

 Syntax 2:
 for $i(0..1000)

{
print “$i\n”;
}

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 Moving around in a Loop
 next: ignore the current iteration
 last: terminates the loop.

 What is the output for the following code snippet:

for ( $i = 0; $i < 10; $i++)
{
if ($i == 1 || $i == 3) { next; }
elsif($i == 5) { last; }
else
{print “$i\n”;}
}
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Answer

0
2
4
 Exercise
 Use a loop structure and code a program that
produces the following output:

A
AA
AAA
AAAB
AAABA
AAABAA
AAABAAA
AAABAAAB
…..

TIP: $chain = $chain . “A”; 29

Exercise
#! /usr/bin/perl

for ($i=0, $j=0; $i<100; $i++)

{
if ( $j==3){$chain.=“B”;$j=0;}
else {$chain.=“A”; $j++;}
print “$chain\n”;
}

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 Exercise: Generating a Random
Sample
 A study yields an outcome between 0 and 100
for every patient. You want to generate an
artificial random study for 100 patients:

Patient 1 99
Patient 2 65
Patient 3 89
….

Tip:
- use the srand to seed the random number
generator
-use rand 100 to generate values between 0 and
100 :
rand 100 31
Exercise

for ($i=0; $i<100; $i++)

{
$v=rand 100;
#print “Patient $i $v\n”;
printf “Patient %d %.2f\n\n”, $i, $v;
#%s : chaines, strings
#%d : integer
#%f : floating points
}
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Collections Of Variables: Arrays
 Arrays

 Array variable is denoted by the @ symbol

 @array = ( “Larry”, “Curly”, “Moe” );

 To access the whole array, use the whole

array
 print @array; # prints : Larry Curly Moe

 Notice that you do not need to loop through

the whole array to print it – Perl does this for
you
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Arrays cont…
 Array Indexes start at 0 !!!!!

 To access one element of the array : use $

 Why? Because every element in the array is scalar

 print “$array[0]\n”; # prints : Larry

 Question:

 What happens if we access $array[3] ?

 Answer1 : Value is set to 0 in Perl

 Answer2: Anything in C!!!!!

35
 Arrays cont ...

 To find the index of the last element in the

array
print $#array; # prints 2 in the previous
# example

 Note another way to find the number of

elements in the array:
$array_size = @array;
 $array_size now has 3 in the above example
because there are 3 elements in the array
36
 Sorting Arrays
 Perl has a built in sort function
 Two ways to sort:
 Default : sorts in a standard string comparisons order
 sort LIST

 Usersub: create your own subroutine that returns an

integer less than, equal to or greater than 0
 Sort USERSUB LIST

 The <=> and cmp operators make creating sorting

subroutines very easy

37
 Numerical Sorting Example
#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
@unsortedArray = (3, 10, 76, 23, 1, 54);
@sortedArray = sort numeric @unsortedArray;

print “@unsortedArray\n”; # prints 3 10 76 23 1 54

print “@sortedArray\n”; # prints 1 3 10 23 54 76

sub numeric
{
return $a <=> $b;

}
# Numbers: $a <=> $b : -1 if $a<$b , 0 if $a== $b, 1 if $a>$b
# Strings: $a cpm $b : -1 if $a<$b , 0 if $a== $b, 1 if $a>$b
38
String Sorting Example
#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
@unsortedArray = (“Larry”, “Curly”, “moe”);
@sortedArray = sort { lc($a) cmp lc($b)} @unsortedArray;

print “@unsortedArray\n”; # prints Larry Curly moe

print “@sortedArray\n”; # prints Curly Larry moe

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 Foreach
 Foreach allows you to iterate over an array
 Example:
foreach $element (@array)
{
print “$element\n”;
}

 This is similar to :
for ($i = 0; $i <= $#array; $i++)
{
print “$array[$i]\n”;
}
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 Sorting with Foreach
 The sort function sorts the array and returns the list in
sorted order.
 Example :
@array( “Larry”, “Curly”, “Moe”);
foreach $element (sort @array)
{
print “$element ”;
}

 Prints the elements in sorted order:

Curly Larry Moe
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 Exercise: Sorting According to
Multiple Criterion
 Use the following initialization to sort individuals by age and then by
income:

 Syntax

@sortedArray = sort numeric @unsortedArray;

sub numeric
{
return $a <=> $b;
}
Data

@index=(0,1,2,3,4);
@name=(“V”,“W”,”X”,”Y”,”Z”);
@age=(10,20, 15, 20, 10);
@income=(100,670, 280,800,400);

 Output:
Name X Age A Income I
…

Tip:
42
-Sort the index, using information contained in the other arrays.
 Exercise: Sorting According to
Multiple Criterion

@index=(0,1,2,3,4,5);
@name=(“V”,“W”,”X”,”Y”,”Z”);
@age=(10,20, 15, 20, 10);
@income=(100,670, 280,800,400);

foreach $i ( sort my_numeric @index)

{
print “$name[$i] $age[$i] $income[$i];
}
sub my_numeric
{
if ($age[$a] == $age[$b])
{return $income[$a]<=>$income[$b]; }
else
{return $age[$a]<=>$age[$b]; }
}
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Manipulating Arrays
 Strings to Arrays : split
 Split a string into words and put into an array
@array = split( /;/, “Larry;Curly;Moe” );
@array= (“Larry”, “Curly”, “Moe”);
# creates the same array as we saw previously

 Split into characters

@stooge = split( //, “curly” );
# array @stooge has 5 elements: c, u, r, l, y

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Split cont..
 Split on any character
@array = split( /:/, “10:20:30:40”);
# array has 4 elements : 10, 20, 30, 40

 Split on Multiple White Space

@array = split(/\s+/, “this is a test”;
# array has 4 elements : this, is, a, test

 More on ‘\s+’ later

46
Arrays to Strings
 Array to space separated string
@array = (“Larry”, “Curly”, “Moe”);
$string = join( “;“, @array);
# string = “Larry;Curly;Moe”

 Array of characters to string

@stooge = (“c”, “u”, “r”, “l”, “y”);
$string = join( “”, @stooge );
# string = “curly”

47
Joining Arrays cont…
 Join with any character you want
@array = ( “10”, “20”, “30”, “40” );
$string = join( “:”, @array);
# string = “10:20:30:40”

 Join with multiple characters

@array = “10”, “20”, “30”, “40”);
$string = join(“->”, @array);
# string = “10->20->30->40”

48
Arrays as Stacks and Lists
 To append to the end of an array :
@array = ( “Larry”, “Curly”, “Moe” );
push (@array, “Shemp” );
print $array[3]; # prints “Shemp”

 To remove the last element of the array (LIFO)

$elment = pop @array;
print $element; # prints “Shemp”
 @array now has the original elements

(“Larry”, “Curly”, “Moe”)

49
 Arrays as Stacks and Lists

 To prepend to the beginning of an array

@array = ( “Larry”, “Curly”, “Moe” );
unshift @array, “Shemp”;
print $array[3]; # prints “Moe”
print “$array[0]; # prints “Shemp”

 To remove the first element of the array

$element = shift @array;
print $element; # prints “Shemp”
 The array now contains only :
 “Larry”, “Curly”, “Moe” 50
 Exercise: Spliting
 Instructions
 Remove
 shift: beginning, pop: end
 Add
 Unshift: beginning, push: end

 Use split, shift and push to turn the following string:

“The enquiry 1 was administered to five couples”

“The enquiry 2 was administered to six couples”
“The enquiry 3 was administered to eigh couples”

Into
“five couples were administered the enquiry 1”
….
51
 Exercise: Spliting
 Use split, shift and push to turn the following string:

$s[0]= “The enquiry 1 was administered to five couples”;

$s[1]= “The enquiry 2 was administered to six couples”;
$s[2]= “The enquiry 3 was administered to eigh couples”;
foreach $s(@s)
{
@s2=split (/was administered to/, $s);
$new_s=“$s2[1] were admimistered $s2[0]”;
print “$new_s\n”;
}

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Multidimentional Arrays
Multi Dimensional Arrays
 Better use Hash tables (cf later)
 If you need to:
 @tab=([‘Monday’,’Tuesday’],
[‘Morning’,’Afternoon’,’Evening’]);
$a=$tab[0][0] # $a == ‘Monday’
$tab2=(‘midnight’, ‘Twelve’);
$tab[2]=\@tab2 # integrate tab2 as the last row
of tab

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Thank you 