Home > Store

Perl by Example, 5th Edition

Register your product to gain access to bonus material or receive a coupon.

Perl by Example, 5th Edition

Book

  • Sorry, this book is no longer in print.
Not for Sale

eBook

  • Your Price: $38.39
  • List Price: $47.99
  • Includes EPUB and PDF
  • About eBook Formats
  • This eBook includes the following formats, accessible from your Account page after purchase:

    ePub EPUB The open industry format known for its reflowable content and usability on supported mobile devices.

    Adobe Reader PDF The popular standard, used most often with the free Acrobat® Reader® software.

    This eBook requires no passwords or activation to read. We customize your eBook by discreetly watermarking it with your name, making it uniquely yours.

About

Features

  • Ellie Quigley's legendary guide to Perl: now modernized, slimmed down, and 100% focused on today's applications
  • Includes hundreds of short, to-the-point code examples for automation, testing, and much more
  • Shares practical insights and techniques for maintaining and improving legacy Perl code
  • Shows how to make the most of the massive CPAN software archive
  • Identifies Perl "gotchas" to avoid -- and what to do instead

Description

  • Copyright 2015
  • Dimensions: 7" x 9-1/8"
  • Pages: 888
  • Edition: 5th
  • Book
  • ISBN-10: 0-13-376081-2
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-13-376081-1

The World’s Easiest Perl 5 Tutorial—Updated for Today’s Applications and “Modern Perl” Best Practices

“When I look at my bookshelf, I see eleven books on Perl programming. Perl by Example, Third Edition, isn’t on the shelf; it sits on my desk, where I use it almost daily. I still think it is the best Perl book on the market for anyone—beginner or seasoned programmer—who uses Perl daily.”

Bill Maples, Enterprise Network Support, Fidelity National Information Services

Perl by Example, Fifth Edition, is the proven, easy way to master Perl 5 programming. Legendary Silicon Valley programming instructor Ellie Quigley has fully updated and focused her classic text on today’s key Perl applications, especially automation, testing, data extraction, and legacy code maintenance. She has also revised this edition to reflect “modern Perl” practices that have emerged since Perl 5.10.

Quigley illuminates every technique with focused, classroom-tested code examples. For each example, she shows you code, input, and output, and provides detailed, line-by-line explanations of how the code generates that output. And her coverage is comprehensive, from basic syntax to regular expression handling, files, references, objects, working with databases, and much more…plus appendices that contain a complete list of functions and definitions, command-line switches, special variables, and popular modules.

New in This Edition

• Modern Perl approaches to using data types, operators, conditions, subroutines, packages, modules, references, pointers, files, objects, and more

• Many new examples, covering automation, testing, and data extraction

• A tutorial on writing object-oriented Perl with the Moose object system

• An introduction to Dancer, a powerful web application framework designed to replace CGI

• Updated code examples throughout

More than 50,000 sysadmins, power users, and developers have used this book’s previous editions to become expert Perl programmers, and you can, too–even if you’re completely new to Perl. Then, once you’re an expert, you’ll routinely return to this practical guide as the best source for reliable answers, solutions, and code. A more focused, quicker read than ever, this clear and practical guide will take you from your first Perl script to advanced applications. It’s the only Perl text you’ll need.

Ellie Quigley has taught scripting in Silicon Valley for more than twenty-five years. Her Perl and shell programming classes at the University of California, Santa Cruz Extension are part of Silicon Valley lore. Her other best-selling Prentice Hall books include UNIX® Shells by Example, Fourth Edition; PHP and MySQL by Example (with Marko Gargenta); and JavaScript by Example. A major player in developing UCSC’s Silicon Valley Extension program, she has created and customized courses for pioneering firms, including Xilinx, NetApp, Yahoo, and Juniper.

Downloads

Downloads

Please download the files associated with Perl by Example here.

Sample Content

Online Sample Chapter

Scalars, Arrays, and Hashes in Perl

Sample Pages

Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 5 and Index)

Table of Contents

Preface xxv

Chapter 1: The Practical Extraction and Report Language 1

1.1 What Is Perl? 1

1.2 What Is an Interpreted Language? 2

1.3 Who Uses Perl? 3

1.4 Where to Get Perl 6

1.5 Perl Documentation 9

1.6 What You Should Know 13

1.7 What’s Next? 13

Chapter 2: Perl Quick Start 15

2.1 Quick Start, Quick Reference 15

2.2 Chapter Summary 32

2.3 What’s Next? 32

Chapter 3: Perl Scripts 33

3.1 Getting Started 33

3.2 Filehandles 37

3.3 Variables (Where to Put Data) 37

3.4 Summing It Up 42

3.5 Perl Switches 44

3.6 What You Should Know 47

3.7 What’s Next? 47

Exercise 3 Getting with It Syntactically 48

Chapter 4: Getting a Handle on Printing 49

4.1 The Special Filehandles STDOUT, STDIN, STDERR 49

4.2 Words 51

4.3 The print Function 51

4.4 Fancy Formatting with the printf Function 69

4.5 What Are Pragmas? 74

4.6 What You Should Know 78

4.7 What’s Next? 79

Exercise 4 A String of Perls 79

Chapter 5: What’s In a Name? 81

5.1 More About Data Types 81

5.2 Scalars, Arrays, and Hashes 87

5.3 Array Functions 105

5.4 Hash (Associative Array) Functions 125

5.5 What You Should Know 140

5.6 What’s Next? 141

Exercise 5 The Funny Characters 141

Chapter 6: Where’s the Operator? 145

6.1 About Perl Operators—More Context 145

6.2 Mixing Types 148

6.3 Precedence and Associativity 149

6.4 What You Should Know 178

6.5 What’s Next? 179

Exercise 6 Operator, Operator 179

Chapter 7: If Only, Unconditionally, Forever 181

7.1 Control Structures, Blocks, and Compound Statements 182

7.2 Statement Modifiers and Simple Statements 188

7.3 Repetition with Loops 190

7.4 Looping Modifiers 202

7.5 What You Should Know 217

7.6 What’s Next? 217

Exercise 7 What Are Your Conditions? 218

Chapter 8: Regular Expressions—Pattern Matching 219

8.1 What Is a Regular Expression? 219

8.2 Modifiers and Simple Statements with Regular Expressions 221

8.3 Regular Expression Operators 225

8.4 What You Should Know 243

8.5 What’s Next? 243

Exercise 8 A Match Made in Heaven 244

Chapter 9: Getting Control—Regular Expression Metacharacters 245

9.1 The RegExLib.com Library 245

9.2 Regular Expression Metacharacters 247

9.3 Unicode 290

9.4 What You Should Know 294

9.5 What’s Next? 295

Exercise 9 And the Search Goes On . . . 295

Chapter 10: Getting a Handle on Files 297

10.1 The User-Defined Filehandle 297

10.2 Reading from STDIN 307

10.3 Passing Arguments 333

10.4 File Testing 342

10.5 What You Should Know 344

10.6 What’s Next? 344

Exercise 10 Getting a Handle on Things 345

Chapter 11: How Do Subroutines Function? 347

11.1 Subroutines/Functions 348

11.2 Passing Arguments and the @_ Array 352

11.3 What You Should Know 373

11.4 What’s Next? 373

Exercise 11 I Can’t Seem to Function Without Subroutines 374

Chapter 12: Does This Job Require a Reference? 377

12.1 What Is a Reference? 377

12.2 What You Should Know 404

12.3 What’s Next? 404

Exercise 12 It’s Not Polite to Point! 405

Chapter 13: Modularize It, Package It, and Send It to the Library! 407

13.1 Before Getting Started 407

13.2 The Standard Perl Library 417

13.3 Modules from CPAN 436

13.4 Using Perlbrew and CPAN Minus 441

13.5 What You Should Know 444

13.6 What’s Next? 445

Exercise 13 I Hid All My Perls in a Package 445

Chapter 14: Bless Those Things! (Object-Oriented Perl) 447

14.1 The OOP Paradigm 447

14.2 Perl Classes, Objects, and Methods—Relating to the Real World 450

14.3 Anonymous Subroutines, Closures, and Privacy 478

14.4 Inheritance 484

14.5 Plain Old Documentation—Documenting a Module 501

14.6 Using Objects from the Perl Library 508

14.7 What You Should Know 512

14.8 What’s Next? 513

Exercise 14 What’s the Object of This Lesson? 513

Chapter 15: Perl Connects with MySQL 519

15.1 Introduction 519

15.2 What Is a Relational Database? 520

15.3 Getting Started with MySQL 530

15.4 What Is the Perl DBI? 556

15.5 Statements That Don’t Return Anything 579

15.6 Transactions 583

15.7 What’s Left? 590

15.8 What You Should Know 591

15.9 What’s Next? 591

Exercise 15 Practicing Queries and Using DBI 592

Chapter 16: Interfacing with the System 595

16.1 System Calls 595

16.2 Processes 629

16.3 Other Ways to Interface with the Operating System 658

16.4 Error Handling 664

16.5 Signals and the %SIG Hash 669

16.6 What You Should Know 673

Exercise 16 Interfacing with the System 674

Appendix A: Perl Built-ins, Pragmas, Modules, and the Debugger 675

A.1 Perl Functions 675

A.2 Special Variables 705

A.3 Perl Pragmas 708

A.4 Perl Modules 710

A.5 Command-Line Switches 716

A.6 Debugger 718

Appendix B: SQL Language Tutorial 723

B.1 What Is SQL? 723

B.2 SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML) 731

B.3 SQL Data Definition Language 748

B.5 Appendix Summary 770

B.6 What You Should Know 770

Exercise B Do You Speak My Language? 771

Appendix C: Introduction to Moose (A Postmodern Object System for Perl 5) 775

C.1 Getting Started 775

C.2 The Constructor 776

C.3 The Attributes 776

C.4 What About Moo? 795

C.5 Appendix Summary 796

C.6 References 796

Appendix D: Perlbrew, CPAN, and cpanm 797

D.1 CPAN and @INC 797

D.2 cpanm 802

D.3 Perlbrew 803

D.4 Caveats: C Dependencies 805

D.5 Windows 806

Appendix E: Dancing with Perl 807

E.1 A New Dancer App 808

Exercise E May I Have This Dance? 829

Index 831

More Information

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020