Perl Programming For The Absolute Beginner

by Ford,Jr., Jerry Lee

Edition: 1st

ISBN13: 9781598632224

ISBN10: 1598632221

Format: Paperback

Pub. Date: 2006-06-30

Publisher(s): Cengage Learning PTR

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Summary

The Perl programming language is flexible, open source, free, and widely available. "Perl Programming for the Absolute Beginner" is perfect for readers who want to learn programming using a simple language or for current programmers looking to pick up Perl. Using a unique, games-based instructional approach, the book teaches readers the basics of Perl programming, demonstrating the validating the techniques taught through the development of simple computer games. The book shows readers how to execute Perl scripts on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh and covers the latest version of the language, 5.8. All source code used in the book is available on the accompanying CD-Rom.

Introduction	p. xii
Introducing Perl	p. 1
Perl Basics	p. 3
Project Preview: The Perl Humor Script	p. 4
Perl Scripting Overview	p. 6
A Little Perl History	p. 7
Where's Perl 6?	p. 8
What Can Perl Scripts Do?	p. 8
The Programming Language, the Interpreter, and Scripts	p. 9
Working from the Command Prompt	p. 10
Accessing the Command Prompt on Windows XP	p. 10
Accessing the Command Prompt on Mac OS X	p. 11
Accessing the Command Prompt in Unix and Linux	p. 12
Not Everything Smells Like Roses	p. 12
Determining if Perl Is Installed on Your Computer	p. 13
Where to Find Perl	p. 14
Where to Find Perl's Documentation	p. 17
Perldoc	p. 17
Man Pages	p. 19
ActiveState Documentation	p. 19
Writing Your First Perl Scripts	p. 20
Creating Perl One-liners	p. 20
Writing Your First Perl Script File	p. 21
Dissecting Hello.pl	p. 22
How Perl Executes Your Script	p. 24
Back to the Perl Humor Script	p. 24
Designing the Game	p. 24
The Final Result	p. 27
Summary	p. 29
Working with Strings, Numbers, and Operators	p. 31
Project Preview: The Story of William the Great	p. 31
Perl's Free-Wheeling Approach to Code Structure	p. 34
Perl's Flexible View of Data	p. 37
Working with Strings	p. 37
Working with Numbers	p. 41
Converting Scalar Data	p. 41
Storing Data in Scalar Variables	p. 42
Variable Scope	p. 42
Assigning Data to Scalar Variables	p. 43
Variable Interpolation	p. 43
Understandings How to Work with Perl Operators	p. 44
String Operators	p. 44
Arithmetic Operators	p. 46
Increment and Decrement Operators	p. 48
Assignment Operators	p. 48
Relational Operators	p. 49
Logical Operators	p. 50
Input and Output	p. 51
Working with Standard Input	p. 51
Working with Standard Output	p. 52
Back to the Story of William the Great	p. 52
Designing the Game	p. 52
The Final Result	p. 58
Summary	p. 63
Mastering Key Perl Programming Constructs	p. 65
Controlling Program Flow	p. 67
Project Preview: The Perl Fortune Teller Game	p. 68
Code Blocks	p. 70
Applying Conditional Logic	p. 72
Perl's View of What's True and False	p. 72
Variations of the if Statement	p. 73
The unless Statement	p. 79
Creating More Sophisticated Conditional Logic	p. 80
Nesting	p. 80
Working with the ?...: Conditional Operator	p. 81
Creating Custom Conditional Structures	p. 81
Setting Up Loops	p. 83
While	p. 84
Until	p. 86
Do	p. 88
For	p. 89
Foreach	p. 90
Adding Continue Blocks to Your Loops	p. 91
Loop Controls	p. 92
The last Statement	p. 92
The next Statement	p. 93
The redo Statement	p. 93
Adding Labels to Your Code Blocks and Loops	p. 93
Back to the Perl Fortune Teller Game	p. 94
Designing the Game	p. 94
The Final Result	p. 100
Summary	p. 103
Working with Collections of Data	p. 105
Project Preview: The Star Wars Quiz	p. 106
Working with Collections of Related Data	p. 108
Assigning Data to a List	p. 108
Working with Arrays	p. 110
Declaring an Array	p. 110
Populating and Modifying Arrays with Data	p. 112
Retrieving Data from an Array	p. 113
Sorting Array Elements	p. 117
Deleting Array Elements	p. 118
Using Arrays to Populate Variables and Other Arrays	p. 119
Ensuring That Array Elements Exist	p. 120
Dealing with Undefined Array Elements	p. 120
Creating Hashes	p. 120
Adding and Deleting Hash Elements	p. 122
Processing Hash Contents	p. 123
Sorting Hash Values	p. 124
Converting Between Arrays and Hashes	p. 124
Understanding Context within Perl	p. 124
Scalar Context	p. 125
Numeric Context	p. 125
Boolean Context	p. 126
Scalar Versus List Context	p. 126
Context and Lists, Arrays, and Hashes	p. 127
Back to the Star Wars Quiz	p. 128
Designing the Game	p. 128
The Final Result	p. 136
Summary	p. 142
Improving Script Organization and Structure	p. 145
Project Preview: The Pick a Number Game	p. 145
Enhancing Script Organization	p. 149
Organizing Perl Scripts Using Subroutines	p. 151
Defining Subroutines	p. 151
Executing Subroutines	p. 152
A Template for Organizing Your Scripts and Subroutines	p. 153
The Fortune Teller Game Revisited	p. 154
Passing Arguments to Subroutines	p. 159
Passing Data to Subroutines for Processing	p. 160
Accessing Subroutine Arguments	p. 161
Reassigning Subroutine Arguments	p. 162
Passing Lists, Arrays, and Hashes as Arguments	p. 163
Getting Data Back from Subroutines	p. 164
Controlling Variable Scope	p. 166
Creating Private Variables	p. 166
Getting Strict with Private Variables	p. 167
Creating Local Variables	p. 168
Back to the Pick a Number Game	p. 169
Designing the Game	p. 169
The Final Result	p. 177
Summary	p. 183
Scope and Modules	p. 185
Project Preview: The Rock, Paper, Scissors Game	p. 186
Exercising Additional Control over Variable Scope	p. 189
Working with Perl Modules	p. 190
The Perl Library	p. 191
Accessing Module Documentation	p. 191
Importing Modules into Perl Scripts	p. 191
Building Custom Modules	p. 193
Defining a New Perl Module	p. 194
Saving Your Custom Modules	p. 196
Importing and Using Custom Perl Modules	p. 197
Using Other People's Perl Modules	p. 198
PPM	p. 198
CPAN	p. 200
Back to the Rock, Paper, Scissors Game	p. 202
Building the Clear_the_screen Module	p. 203
Designing the Game	p. 203
The Final Result	p. 214
Summary	p. 223
Advanced Topics	p. 225
Regular Expressions	p. 227
Project Preview: The Lottery Picker Game	p. 228
Introducing Regular Expressions	p. 230
Matching Simple Patterns	p. 231
Creating Simple Patterns	p. 232
Shorter Pattern Footprints	p. 232
Working with Metacharacters	p. 234
Matching Patterns at the Beginning of a String	p. 234
Matching Patterns at the End of a String	p. 235
Matching One or Fewer Times	p. 236
Matching Any Single Character	p. 236
Matching Zero or More Instances	p. 237
Matching One or More Instances	p. 238
Matching a Range of Instances	p. 238
Matching Alternative Patterns	p. 238
Matching Any of a Collection of Characters	p. 239
Other Regular Expression Tips and Tricks	p. 241
Using Patterns to Replace Data	p. 241
Performing Character Translation	p. 242
Handling Differences in Case	p. 242
Matching Data Stored in Lists	p. 243
Back to the Lottery Picker Game	p. 244
Designing the Game	p. 244
The Final Result	p. 255
Summary	p. 264
Debugging	p. 26
Project Preview: The Tic Tac Toe Game	p. 268
Understanding Perl Script Errors	p. 271
Syntax Errors	p. 272
Runtime Errors	p. 272
Logical Errors	p. 273
Examining Perl Error Messages	p. 273
Tracing Logical Flow with the Print Function	p. 275
Using the Perl Debugger to Track Down Pesky Bugs	p. 276
Starting the Debugger	p. 276
Executing Additional Code Statements	p. 278
Resuming or Restarting Execution	p. 280
Tracing Logic Flow	p. 281
Quitting the Debugger	p. 282
Locating Your Position within the Script	p. 282
Displaying and Modifying Variable Values	p. 282
Displaying Help Information	p. 283
Executing any Perl Statement	p. 284
Setting and Working with Breakpoints	p. 285
Using the Perl Debugger as an Interactive Test Environment	p. 287
Using a Graphical Perl IDE/Debugger	p. 287
Tips for Writing Cleaner Code	p. 289
Document What Your Script Is Doing	p. 289
Enable Warnings	p. 289
Add Use Strict	p. 290
Keep Things Simple	p. 291
Break Things Down into Subroutines	p. 292
Back to the Tic Tac Toe Game	p. 292
Designing the Game	p. 292
The Final Result	p. 306
Summary	p. 318
Appendices	p. 321
Perl Scripting Examples	p. 323
CGI Scripting	p. 324
Creating a Basic CGI File	p. 324
Executing Perl CGI Scripts	p. 325
Working with the CGI.pm Module	p. 327
Creating Reports and Documents	p. 328
Opening Files for Reading	p. 328
Reacting to Failures when Opening Files	p. 329
Reading File Contents	p. 329
Opening Files for Writing	p. 331
Writing File Output	p. 332
Closing Files when Done	p. 332
Managing Files and Directories	p. 333
Managing Files	p. 333
Managing Directories	p. 335
PerlScript and the WSH	p. 337
What's on the Companion Website?	p. 343
The Book's Source Code	p. 343
Advanced Text Editors	p. 344
JGsoft EditPad Lite	p. 345
JGsoft EditPad Pro	p. 345
Perl Editors	p. 347
Perl Code Editor	p. 347
Perl Builder 2.0	p. 347
DzSoft Perl Editor	p. 348
Komodo	p. 348
PerlEdit	p. 350
What Next?	p. 351
Recommended Reading	p. 351
Locating Perl Resources Online	p. 352
perl.com	p. 353
The Perl Directory at Perl.org	p. 353
Perlmonks	p. 353
The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network	p. 355
The Perl Foundation	p. 355
Perl Mailing Lists	p. 356
perl.beginners	p. 356
Yahoo! Groups: perl.beginners	p. 356
Glossary	p. 359
Index	p. 369
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