This hands-on Perl Programming course presents a thorough introduction to the Perl scripting language emphasizing the rapid development of portable and modular Perl programs and scripts. Students are introduced to all major language elements including built-in data types, powerful operators, flow control and robust built-in functions. The course also covers the use of command line processing, file and directory I/O to create flexible and user friendly programs. Attendees will also be introduced to object-oriented programming in Perl as well as how to use pattern matching with Regular Expressions and string handling functions to manipulate files and data. Students will learn to create reusable code using subroutines, modules, and Perl's object-oriented architecture to deploy business logic across many programs and scripts to enhance maintainability and scalability.
Students will also learn to use the DBI Perl module to write programs that provide a consistent database interface independent of the actual database being used. Comprehensive hands on exercises will be completed throughout the course to reinforce key concepts and practice debugging techniques. Students are shown how to extend Perl's basic functionality with packages and loadable modules.
Introduction to Perl!
- Origin and Design Goals of Perl
- Overview of Perl Features
- Getting and Installing Perl
- Accessing Documentation via perldoc
- HTML-Format Reference Documentation
- Perl Strengths and Limitations
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Getting Started With Perl
- Explicit Invocation of the Perl Interpreter
- Running Perl on UNIX vs. Windows
- Running Perl from the Command Line
- Using Command Line Options
- Using Debug Mode
- Implicit Invocation of the Perl Interpreter
- Running and Debugging Perl Scripts
- Simple and Compound Statements
- Fundamental Input Techniques
- Using the print Function
to Generate Standard Output
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Using Variables
- Scalar Variables
- Introduction to Standard Data Types
- Retrieving Standard Input Using the Default Variable $_
- Reserved Scalar Variables
- Assigning Strings and Numbers to Scalar Variables
- Declaring Constants for Persistent Values
- Using strict to Declare
Variables
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Pattern Matching in Perl
- Regular Expressions in Perl
- Using Pattern Matching Operators
- Altering Data with Substitutions in Regular Expressions
- Using Backreferences to Capture Data from Regular Expression Matching
- Global and Case-Insensitive Matches
- Altering Data with Character Translation
- Using Variables in Patterns
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Operators
- Introduction to Fundamental Operators
- Operator Precedence and Associativity
- Using the Ternary Operator ?: as a Shortcut for the if Statement
- Using <FILEHANDLE> and <> File I/O
Operators for Standard Input/Output
- Using the Shortcut Operators +=,
-=, *=, /=
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String Manipulation
- String Comparison
- String Relations
- Concatenation
- Substring Manipulation
- Using chomp and chop to Eliminate EOL Characters
- Escape Characters for Formatting
- String Manipulation Functions
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Flow Control: Conditional
Statements and Looping
- Conditional Expressions and Logical Operators
- if/else/elsif and unless
- Constructing switch/case Equivalent Expressions
- while Loops and do Loops
- for and foreach Loops
- Labels
- Altering Program Flow with next,
last, and redo
- Trapping Errors with the eval Function
- Terminating a Script with exit
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Subroutines and Parameters
- Simplifying Scripts with Subroutines
- Defining and Calling a Subroutine
- Passing Arguments by Value
- Passing Arguments by Reference
- Using return to Return
a Value
- Controlling Variable Scope using my and local Keywords
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Arrays and Hashes
- Defining Numeric Index Arrays
- Defining Associative Arrays
- Sorting Arrays with the sort Function
- Adding and Deleting Items Using push,
pop, shift, and unshift
- Using slice, splice, and reverse
- Other Array Manipulation Techniques
- Looping through an Array
- Merging Arrays
- Associative Array Manipulation Functions
- Introduction to Hashes
- Preallocating Memory to Optimize Hash Performance
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Packages and Modules
- The Power of Packages and Modules
- Introduction to Standard Modules
- Where to Find Modules on the Internet
- Installing a Module on UNIX or Windows
- Creating Packages for Portability
- Using Packages to Create Isolated Namespaces and to Separate Code
- Creating Modules
- Creating and Using Symbols in a Module
- Using the Exporter to Export Symbols from a Perl Module
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File and Directory I/O
- Using open and close
- File Open Modes
- Reading Files into Arrays
- Retrieving File Metadata
- Built-in File Management Functions
- Using print and write
- File Test Operators
- Directory Manipulation Using opendir,
closedir, readdir, chdir, mkdir and rmdir
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Input/Output Processing
- Parsing Input
- Using Standard Input, Standard Output, and Standard Error
- String and Field Processing
- Using Streams and Pipes
- Using die to Quit with
an Error
- Redirecting Standard Output and Standard Error to a File
- Getting Standard Input from a File
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Implementing Command Line
Arguments
- Reading Command Line Arguments from @ARGV
- Read Files Explicitly with <ARGV> and Implicitly with <>
- Manipulating Positional Parameters with push,
pop, shift
- Process Lists of Files
- Processing Command Line Options with getopt or getopts
- Analyzing Command Line Argument Values with the Getopt::Std and Getopt::Long Modules
- Reserved Variables
- Manipulating Identifiable Options Using GetOptions
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Perl Report Formatting
- Defining Report Formats
- Justifying Text (Left, Right, Center)
- Using write to Generate
Reports
- Defining here Documents
for Report Customization
- Creating Report Headers
- Using Built-in Variables to Control Report Appearance
- Printing Line Numbers on a Report
- Formatting Multi-Line Output
- Writing Formatted Text to a File
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Debugging In Perl
- Using the Built-in Perl Debugger
- Starting the Debugger
- Debugger Command Syntax
- Checking for Script Syntax Errors
- Solving Compile-Time Errors
- Single-Stepping through a Script
- Executing to Breakpoints
- Setting Global Watches
- Printing Values of Variables
- Listing All Variables Used in the Script
- Using Strict Error
Checking
- Quitting the Debugger
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References
- Life Cycle of a Reference
- Hard References and Anonymous References
- Use of References to Create Complex Data Structures
- Creating Hard and Anonymous References
- Modifying References
- Dereferencing a Reference
- The Arrow Operator ->
- Building Complex Data Structures with Multi-Dimensional Arrays and Hashes
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Accessing a Database Using
Perl DBI
- Database Access Life Cycle
- Using DBI and DBD to Connect to a Database
- Fundamental Data Storage and Retrieval Strategies
- DBI Query Syntax
- Using DBI Methods to Retrieve Database Information
- Preparing Queries to be Executed
- Creating Parameterized Queries
- Executing Queries Using execute and do
- Fetching the Result Set to Achieve Workable Data in the Perl Script
- Extracting Data Using an Array
- Extracting Data Using a Hash
- Useful Utilities to Aid in Database Development
- Using Other Modules to Access Databases on the Web
- Extracting Data Using a Hash
- Displaying Results from Queries in a Report
- Releasing Database Resources
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Perl Object Oriented Programming
- Object Oriented Programming Concepts
- Object Oriented Programming Terminology
- How Perl Implements Object Oriented Programming
- Modeling Software Objects Using Classes and Base Classes
- Creating Classes, Objects, Methods and Attributes
- Writing Constructors to Initialize of Objects
- Using bless to Turn References into Objects
- Creating Class Hierarchies through Inheritance
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