Perl
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Robust scripts
All scripts should start with the following:
use strict; use warnings; use utf8; use autodie;
Only remove one or more of the above if you really know what you are doing.
It is also a good idea to define a minimum Perl version, e.g. to require Perl 5.14 or above:
use v5.14;
More readable names for common variables (e.g. $/
can be referred to as $INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR
) can be created with:
use English;
Arrays and lists
- Although used interchangeably, technically a list is the collection of elements whereas an array is the variable that points to the list.
$#array
contains the last element index of the array. Since arrays are zero-indexed, the size of the array is$#array + 1
.- Negative array indices start from the end of the list, so the last element can be accessed as
$array[-1]
. - An empty list is represented by
()
, and an empty array can be initialised asmy @array = ();
- List ranges can be generated using
..
, e.g. (1..10) will include the numbers from 1 to 10. - The
qw
function allows a list to be generated from elements separated by whitespace, without the need for quotes or commas, e.g.@array = qw(a b c d)
. - Array items can either be a scalar value, or a reference to another list. If you use an array in a list (e.g.
@list = (@array)
), it will be expanded to a scalar value rather than being a reference to the array.
Performance
- Scoping hurts performance (but probably improves readability and keeps variables scoped)
Talks
- Perl Optimisization Tidbits - some surprising results (Perl 5.22, so may no longer be relevant)
- Modern Approaches to Ancient Perls