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Making Easy Things Easy and Hard Things Possible

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Learning Perl, 3rd Edition

Making Easy Things Easy and Hard Things Possible

By Tom Phoenix, Randal L. Schwartz

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Final Release Date: July 2001

Pages: 336

If you ask Perl programmers today what book they relied on most when they were learning Perl, you'll find that an overwhelming majority will name Learning Perl--also known affectionately as "the Llama." The first edition of Learning Perl appeared in 1993 and has been a bestseller ever since. Written by two of the most prominent and active members of the Perl community, this book is the quintessential tutorial for the Perl programming language.Perl began as a tool for Unix system administrators, used for countless small tasks throughout the workday. It has since blossomed into a full-featured programming language on practically every computing platform, and is used for web programming, database manipulation, XML processing, and (of course) system administration--all this while still remaining the perfect tool for the small daily tasks it was designed for. Perl is quick, fun, and eminently useful. Many people start using Perl because they need it, but they continue to use Perl because they love it.The third edition of Learning Perl has not only been updated for Perl 5.6, but has also been rewritten from the ground up to reflect the needs of programmers learning Perl today. Informed by their years of success at teaching Perl as consultants, the authors have re-engineered the book to better match the pace and scope appropriate for readers trying to get started with Perl, while retaining the detailed discussion, thorough examples, and eclectic wit for which the book is famous.This edition of the Llama includes an expanded and more gently-paced introduction to regular expressions, new exercises and solutions designed so readers can practice what they've learned while it's still fresh in their minds, and an overall reworking to bring Learning Perl into the new millennium.Perl is a language for getting your job done. Other books may teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl programmer.

Chapter 1 Introduction
1. Questions and Answers
2. What Does "Perl" Stand For?
3. How Can I Get Perl?
4. How Do I Make a Perl Program?
5. A Whirlwind Tour of Perl
6. Exercises
Chapter 2 Scalar Data
1. What Is Scalar Data?
2. Numbers
3. Strings
4. Perl's Built-in Warnings
5. Scalar Variables
6. Output with print
7. The if Control Structure
8. Getting User Input
9. The chomp Operator
10. The while Control Structure
11. The undef Value
12. The defined Function
13. Exercises
Chapter 3 Lists and Arrays
1. Accessing Elements of an Array
2. Special Array Indices
3. List Literals
4. List Assignment
5. Interpolating Arrays into Strings
6. The foreach Control Structure
7. Perl's Favorite Default: $_
8. Scalar and List Context
9. <STDIN> in List Context
10. Exercises
Chapter 4 Subroutines
1. System and User Functions
2. Defining a Subroutine
3. Invoking a Subroutine
4. Return Values
5. Arguments
6. Private Variables in Subroutines
7. The local Operator
8. Variable-length Parameter Lists
9. Notes on Lexical (my) Variables
10. The use strict Pragma
11. The return Operator
12. Exercises
Chapter 5 Hashes
1. What Is a Hash?
2. Hash Element Access
3. Hash Functions
4. Typical Use of a Hash
5. Exercises
Chapter 6 I/O Basics
1. Input from Standard Input
2. Input from the Diamond Operator
3. The Invocation Arguments
4. Output to Standard Output
5. Formatted Output with printf
6. Exercises
Chapter 7 Concepts of Regular Expressions
1. What Are Regular Expressions?
2. Using Simple Patterns
3. A Pattern Test Program
4. Exercises
Chapter 8 More About Regular Expressions
1. Character Classes
2. General Quantifiers
3. Anchors
4. Memory Parentheses
5. Precedence
6. Exercises
Chapter 9 Using Regular Expressions
1. Matches with m//
2. Option Modifiers
3. The Binding Operator, =~
4. Interpolating into Patterns
5. The Match Variables
6. Substitutions with s///
7. The split Operator
8. The join Function
9. Exercises
Chapter 10 More Control Structures
1. The unless Control Structure
2. The until Control Structure
3. Expression Modifiers
4. The Naked Block Control Structure
5. The elsif Clause
6. Autoincrement and Autodecrement
7. The for Control Structure
8. Loop Controls
9. Logical Operators
10. Exercise
Chapter 11 Filehandles and File Tests
1. What Is a Filehandle?
2. Opening a Filehandle
3. Fatal Errors with die
4. Using Filehandles
5. Reopening a Standard Filehandle
6. File Tests
7. Exercises
Chapter 12 Directory Operations
1. Moving Around the Directory Tree
2. Globbing
3. An Alternate Syntax for Globbing
4. Directory Handles
5. Recursive Directory Listing
6. Exercises
Chapter 13 Manipulating Files and Directories
1. Removing Files
2. Renaming Files
3. Links and Files
4. Making and Removing Directories
5. Modifying Permissions
6. Changing Ownership
7. Changing Timestamps
8. Using Simple Modules
9. Exercises
Chapter 14 Process Management
1. The system Function
2. The exec Function
3. The Environment Variables
4. Using Backquotes to Capture Output
5. Processes as Filehandles
6. Getting Down and Dirty with Fork
7. Sending and Receiving Signals
8. Exercises
Chapter 15 Strings and Sorting
1. Finding a Substring with index
2. Manipulating a Substring with substr
3. Formatting Data with sprintf
4. Advanced Sorting
5. Exercises
Chapter 16 Simple Databases
1. DBM Files and DBM Hashes
2. Manipulating Data with pack and unpack
3. Fixed-length Random-access Databases
4. Variable-length (Text) Databases
5. Exercises
Chapter 17 Some Advanced Perl Techniques
1. Trapping Errors with eval
2. Picking Items from a List with grep
3. Transforming Items from a List with map
4. Unquoted Hash Keys
5. More Powerful Regular Expressions
6. Slices
7. Exercise

Appendix A Exercise Answers
1. Answers to Chapter 2 Exercises
2. Answers to Chapter 3 Exercises
3. Answers to Chapter 4 Exercises
4. Answers to Chapter 5 Exercises
5. Answers to Chapter 6 Exercises
6. Answers to Chapter 7 Exercises
7. Answers to Chapter 8 Exercises
8. Answers to Chapter 9 Exercises
9. Answer to Chapter 10 Exercise
10. Answers to Chapter 11 Exercises
11. Answers to Chapter 12 Exercises
12. Answers to Chapter 13 Exercises
13. Answers to Chapter 14 Exercises
14. Answers to Chapter 15 Exercises
15. Answers to Chapter 16 Exercises
16. Answer to Chapter 17 Exercises
Appendix B Beyond the Llama
1. Further Documentation
2. Regular expressions
3. Packages
4. Extending Perl's Functionality
5. Some Important Modules
6. Pragmas
7. Databases
8. Other Operators and Functions
9. Mathematics
10. Lists and Arrays
11. Bits and Pieces
12. Formats
13. Networking and IPC
14. Security
15. Debugging
16. The Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
17. Command-Line Options
18. Built in Variables
19. Syntax Extensions
20. References
21. Tied Variables
22. Operator Overloading
23. Dynamic Loading
24. Embedding
25. Converting Other Languages to Perl
26. Converting find Command Lines to Perl
27. Command-line Options in Your Programs
28. Embedded Documentation
29. More Ways to Open Filehandles
30. Locales and Unicode
31. Threads and Forking
32. Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)
33. And More...
Colophon

Title:

Learning Perl, 3rd Edition

By:

Tom Phoenix, Randal L. Schwartz

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Ebook
Safari Books Online

Print:

July 2001

Ebook:

February 2009

Pages:

336

Print ISBN:

978-0-596-00132-2

| ISBN 10:

0-596-00132-0

Ebook ISBN:

978-0-596-10336-1

| ISBN 10:

0-596-10336-0

Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal featured on the cover of Learning Perl, Third Edition, is the llama, a relation of the camel native to the Andean range. Also included in this llamoid group is the domestic alpaca and their wild ancestors, the guanaco and the vicuna. Bones found in ancient human settlements suggest that domestication of the alpaca and llama dates back 4,500 years. In 1531, when Spanish conquistadors overran the Inca Empire in the high Andes, they found both animals present in great numbers. These llamas are suited for high mountain life; their hemoglobin can take in more oxygen than that of other mammals.Llamas can weigh up to 300 pounds and are mainly used as beasts of burden. A packtrain may contain several hundred animals and can travel up to twenty miles per day. Llamas will carry loads up to fifty pounds, but have a tendency to be short-tempered and resort to spitting and biting to demonstrate displeasure. To the people of the Andes, llamas also provide meat, wool for clothing, hides for leather, and fat for candles. Their wool can also be braided into rope and rugs, and their dried dung is used for fuel. Sarah Jane Shangraw and Ann Schirmer were the production editors forLearning Perl, Third Edition . Nicole Arigo copyedited the text. Sarah Jane Shangraw, Ann Schirmer, and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Kimo Carter, Claire Cloutier, Ann Schirmer, and Sarah Jane Shangraw did interior page composition. Brenda Miller wrote the index.Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.Melanie Wang designed the interior layout based on a series design by Nancy Priest. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book; the code font is Constant Willison. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6.

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Customer Reviews

REVIEW SNAPSHOT®

by PowerReviews

oreillyLearning Perl, 3rd Edition

4.4

(based on 13 reviews)

Reviewed by 13 customers

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2/24/2014

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

2.0

Not much learning value here

By Chuck

from Austin

About Me Developer, Sys Admin

Pros

Well-written

Cons

Not comprehensive enough
Not enough examples
Not Enough Exercises

Best Uses

Comments about oreilly Learning Perl, 3rd Edition:

I know RS is a perl god. But the fact is, when compared to other books aimed at teaching languages, this book falls short.

It needs much more code, and much less exegesis. More examples, more exercises. More Perl. For example (Chapter 15), I don't need pages of talk before we even get to the first actual invocation of 'sort'. I mean, at that point, I'll just read the docs and get a comprehensive and detailed discussion there.

There is also way too much Unix education in this book to my tastes. I already know Unix.

Perhaps this book would be better suited to someone who knew less about coding than I do - but I can't imagine this book, or for that matter Perl itself, being suitable for someone in that category either.

What I'd like to see is a book that shows and describes lots and lots of idiomatic Perl in a progressive, structured way. Perl is an extremely quirky language, and probably the most complex computer language out there. There are still times (plenty of them) when I see "expert" Perl code and do a double take. On these occasions I end up spending considerable time parsing what the heck is going on syntactically. A resource that saved me some of that time would really be a godsend.

Bottom line: I got much more out of the man pages, perlmonks, Perl Cookbook, and the Camel Book.

3/13/2007

(2 of 3 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Best way to learn perl

By Dan

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Learning Perl, 3rd Edition:

I own an older version but when I read it a couple years ago it was the only way I went from knowing no perl to having a good knowledge of perl.

You should have some level of programming experience to use this book, but I think you can get it with some effort if not.

2/13/2007

4.0

From Llama to Camel in one little book!

By Robert Menes

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Learning Perl, 3rd Edition:

Every other book I've been through to learn Perl never got to the good points; by Eris, I wanted a book with some meat on it! Once I found Learning Perl for sale at my local used book store, I picked it up and started thumbing through it. While a few examples of code were a little confusing for me, this book made learning many of the fundamentals of Perl easy. It also spoke to me as if I were an intelligent, reasoning human, rather than belittling me or trying to throw scare tactics at me. Anyone who wishes to get started with Perl should pick up this book! All it takes is a little Llama to get you to be one with the Camel.

6/7/2005

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Great, but not so much for real beginners

By Dan

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Learning Perl, 3rd Edition:

I do absolutely love this book and it helped me greatly, but I think it's important to realize the audience. If you have NO experience with programming anything, then you may want to get a better "beginner's programming" book. Having said that, I only know a little BASIC from several years ago and the book made perfect sense to me (after a few flashbacks).

1/2/2004

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Learning Perl, 3rd Edition Review

By Jerry M. Howell II

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Learning Perl, 3rd Edition:

This book was wonderful. With a schoolbook approach it helps re-enforce the concepts you have learned. As a mater of fact, the fact that instructors use this book for those purposes is interesting. I throughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone serous about learning Perl.

Jerry M. Howell II

3/2/2003

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Learning Perl, 3rd Edition Review

By Roger Shanks

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Learning Perl, 3rd Edition:

O'Reilly is THE source for technical information. That withstanding, The 3'rd edition of Learning Perl took a step back from the second edition.

2/4/2003

4.0

Learning Perl, 3rd Edition Review

By Jarion Stevens

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Learning Perl, 3rd Edition:

Learning Perl is a must for anyone who wants to learn to program in perl. The excercises reinforce the reading material so you learn perl rather than just read about it. Another excellent book from O'Reilly.

11/8/2002

(2 of 2 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Learning Perl, 3rd Edition Review

By Bob Lucas

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Learning Perl, 3rd Edition:

Excellent book for beginning Perl. Needs a few more exercises per chapter, but they are concise and to the point. Go through this whole book, then get Programming Perl, and Perl in a Nutshell as a quick reference.

5/12/2002

4.0

Learning Perl, 3rd Edition Review

By some bloke in melbourne

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Learning Perl, 3rd Edition:

Pros: excellent introduction. Much hand-holding. No fear of missing the next step--the authors really teach their material very well.

Cons: Much hand-holding. After two weeks I've finished the book and I know I'll never use it as a reference--I'll have to buy the Camel book for that. While Learning Perl is a very well-written introduction that teaches a new subject very well, the lack of larger, significant exercises/projects and the relatively small scope of the book leave me feeling that something was lacking from my rather expensive purchase. (O'Reilly books are bloody expensive here in Australia!)

3/9/2002

(0 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

4.0

Learning Perl, 3rd Edition Review

By Mike

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Learning Perl, 3rd Edition:

Like all O'Reilly books, stright to the point with

no waste of paper.

Displaying reviews 1-10

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Questions and Answers

What Does "Perl" Stand For?

How Can I Get Perl?

How Do I Make a Perl Program?

A Whirlwind Tour of Perl

Exercises

Chapter 2 Scalar Data

What Is Scalar Data?

Numbers

Strings

Perl's Built-in Warnings

Scalar Variables

Output with print

The if Control Structure

Getting User Input

The chomp Operator

The while Control Structure

The undef Value

The defined Function

Exercises

Chapter 3 Lists and Arrays

Accessing Elements of an Array

Special Array Indices

List Literals

List Assignment

Interpolating Arrays into Strings

The foreach Control Structure

Perl's Favorite Default: $_

Scalar and List Context

<STDIN> in List Context

Exercises

Chapter 4 Subroutines

System and User Functions

Defining a Subroutine

Invoking a Subroutine

Return Values

Arguments

Private Variables in Subroutines

The local Operator

Variable-length Parameter Lists

Notes on Lexical (my) Variables

The use strict Pragma

The return Operator

Exercises

Chapter 5 Hashes

What Is a Hash?

Hash Element Access

Hash Functions

Typical Use of a Hash

Exercises

Chapter 6 I/O Basics

Input from Standard Input

Input from the Diamond Operator

The Invocation Arguments

Output to Standard Output

Formatted Output with printf

Exercises

Chapter 7 Concepts of Regular Expressions

What Are Regular Expressions?

Using Simple Patterns

A Pattern Test Program

Exercises

Chapter 8 More About Regular Expressions

Character Classes

General Quantifiers

Anchors

Memory Parentheses

Precedence

Exercises

Chapter 9 Using Regular Expressions

Matches with m//

Option Modifiers

The Binding Operator, =~

Interpolating into Patterns

The Match Variables

Substitutions with s///

The split Operator

The join Function

Exercises