Perl by Example, Fourth Edition, is the easiest, most hands-on way to learn Perl. Legendary Silicon Valley programming instructor Ellie Quigley has thoroughly updated her classic to deliver the skills and information today’s Perl users need most–including all-new coverage of MySQL database programming and a Perl QuickStart designed to get experienced users up and running fast.

Quigley illuminates every technique with focused, classroom-tested code examples, detailed line-by-line explanations, and real program output. This exceptionally clear, easy-to-understand book takes you from your first Perl script to database-driven applications. It’s the only Perl book you’ll ever need!

New in this edition

Perl programming QuickStart: makes first-time Perl programmers productive in just twenty pages

All-new chapter on using the Perl DBI with the MySQL database–plus an easy SQL primer to quickly get you started programming any database

New introductions to Perl in biology (bioinformatics) and to mod_perl, a Perl interpreter embedded in the Apache server, which allows you to create fast, dynamic content; manage the Apache server; authenticate users; and much more

Completely updated:

Includes many new and completely rewritten code examples

Contains fully revised CGI coverage for building dynamic Web sites with Perl

Covers modern Perl 5.8 concepts and principles–and provides a great foundation for Perl 6

More than 30,000 sysadmins, power users, and developers have used previous editions of Perl by Example to become expert Perl programmers. With Perl by Example, Fourth Edition, you can, too–even if you’re completely new to Perl. After you’ve become an expert, you’ll turn to this book constantly as the best source for reliable answers, solutions, and code.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. The Practical Extraction and Report Language 

Section 1.1. What Is Perl? 

Section 1.2. What Is an Interpreted Language? 

Section 1.3. Who Uses Perl? 

Section 1.4. Where to Get Perl 

Section 1.5. What Is CPAN? 

Section 1.6. Perl Documentation 

Section 1.7. What You Should Know 

Section 1.8. What's Next? 

Chapter 2. Perl Quick Start 

Section 2.1. Quick Start, Quick Reference 

Section 2.2. Chapter Summary 

Section 2.3. What's Next? 

Chapter 3. Perl Scripts 

Section 3.1. Script Setup 

Section 3.2. The Script 

Section 3.3. Perl at the Command Line 

Section 3.4. What You Should Know 

Section 3.5. What's Next? 

Chapter 4. Getting a Handle on Printing 

Section 4.1. The Filehandle 

Section 4.2. Words 

Section 4.3. The print Function 

Section 4.4. The printf Function 

Section 4.5. What You Should Know 

Section 4.6. What's Next? 

Chapter 5. What's in a Name 

Section 5.1. About Perl Variables 

Section 5.2. Scalars, Arrays, and Hashes 

Section 5.3. Reading from STDIN 

Section 5.4. Array Functions 

Section 5.5. Hash (Associative Array) Functions 

Section 5.6. More Hashes 

Section 5.7. What You Should Know 

Section 5.8. What's Next? 

Chapter 6. Where's the Operator? 

Section 6.1. About Perl Operators 

Section 6.2. Mixing Data Types 

Section 6.3. Precedence and Associativity 

Section 6.4. What You Should Know 

Section 6.5. What's Next? 

Chapter 7. If Only, Unconditionally, Forever 

Section 7.1. Control Structures, Blocks, and Compound Statements 

Section 7.2. Repetition with Loops 

Section 7.3. What You Should Know 

Section 7.4. What's Next? 

Chapter 8. Regular Expressions—Pattern Matching 

Section 8.1. What Is a Regular Expression? 

Section 8.2. Expression Modifiers and Simple Statements 

Section 8.3. Regular Expression Operators 

Section 8.4. What You Should Know 

Section 8.5. What's Next? 

Chapter 9. Getting Control—Regular Expression Metacharacters 

Section 9.1. Regular Expression Metacharacters 

Section 9.2. Unicode 

Section 9.3. What You Should Know 

Section 9.4. What's Next? 

Chapter 10. Getting a Handle on Files 

Section 10.1. The User-Defined Filehandle 

Section 10.2. Passing Arguments 

Section 10.3. File Testing 

Section 10.4. What You Should Know 

Section 10.5. What's Next? 

Chapter 11. How Do Subroutines Function? 

Section 11.1. Subroutines/Functions 

Section 11.2. Passing Arguments 

Section 11.3. Call-by-Reference 

Section 11.4. What You Should Know 

Section 11.5. What's Next? 

Chapter 12. Modularize It, Package It, and Send It to the Library! 

Section 12.1. Packages and Modules 

Section 12.2. The Standard Perl Library 

Section 12.3. Modules from CPAN 

Section 12.4. What You Should Know 

Section 12.5. What's Next? 

Chapter 13. Does This Job Require a Reference? 

Section 13.1. What Is a Reference? What Is a Pointer? 

Section 13.2. What You Should Know 

Section 13.3. What's Next? 

Chapter 14. Bless Those Things! (Object-Oriented Perl) 

Section 14.1. The OOP Paradigm 

Section 14.2. Classes, Objects, and Methods 

Section 14.3. Anonymous Subroutines, Closures, and Privacy 

Section 14.4. Inheritance 

Section 14.5. Public User Interface—Documenting Classes 

Section 14.6. Using Objects from the Perl Library 

Section 14.7. What You Should Know 

Section 14.8. What's Next? 

Chapter 15. Those Magic Ties and DBM Stuff 

Section 15.1. Tying Variables to a Class 

Section 15.2. DBM Files 

Section 15.3. What You Should Know 

Section 15.4. What's Next? 

Chapter 16. CGI and Perl: The Hyper Dynamic Duo 

Section 16.1. Static and Dynamic Web Pages 

Section 16.2. How It all Works 

Section 16.3. Creating a Web Page with HTML 

Section 16.4. How HTML and CGI Work Together 

Section 16.5. Getting Information Into and Out of the CGI Script 

Section 16.6. CGI and Forms 

Section 16.7. The CGI.pm Module 

Chapter 17. Perl Meets MySQL—A Perfect Connection 

Section 17.1. Introduction 

Section 17.2. What Is a Relational Database? 

Section 17.3. Getting Started with MySQL 

Section 17.4. What Is the Perl DBI? 

Section 17.5. Statements that Don't Return Anything 

Section 17.6. Transactions 

Section 17.7. Using CGI and the DBI to Select and Display Entries 

Section 17.8. What's Left? 

Section 17.9. What You Should Know 

Section 17.10. What's Next? 

Chapter 18. Interfacing with the System 

Section 18.1. System Calls 

Section 18.2. Processes 

Section 18.3. Other Ways to Interface with the Operating System 

Section 18.4. Error Handling 

Section 18.5. Signals 

Section 18.6. What You Should Know 

Section 18.7. What's Next? 

Chapter 19. Report Writing with Pictures 

Section 19.1. The Template 

Section 19.2. What You Should Know 

Section 19.3. What's Next? 

Chapter 20. Send It Over the Net and Sock It to 'Em! 

Section 20.1. Networking and Perl 

Section 20.2. Client/Server Model 

Section 20.3. Network Protocols (TCP/IP) 

Section 20.4. Network Addressing 

Section 20.5. Sockets 

Section 20.6. Client/Server Programs 

Section 20.7. The Socket.pm Module 

Section 20.8. What You Should Know