Learn PERL with Real Code Examples

Perl supports procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming paradigms.

It excels at regular expressions, text parsing, and file manipulation tasks.

CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) provides thousands of modules for extending Perl’s functionality.

Scalars, arrays, hashes for data storage

Context awareness (scalar vs list context)

Regex pattern matching and substitution

File and directory handling

Subroutines and references

Variables: scalars `$`, arrays `@`, hashes `%`

Control structures: `if`, `unless`, `for`, `while`

Regular expressions for matching and substitution

File operations with `open`, `read`, `print`

Subroutines and argument passing

bin/ - executable scripts

lib/ - custom modules

t/ - test scripts

docs/ - documentation

data/ - input/output files

Write `.pl` script files in text editor

Use `use strict; use warnings;` for safer coding

Include modules from CPAN with `use ModuleName;`

Run scripts via `perl script.pl`

Debug using `warn`, `print`, or `perl -d` debugger

Beginner: simple text parsing or file automation

Intermediate: CGI scripts or data transformation

Advanced: object-oriented applications with modules

Expert: bioinformatics pipelines or network daemons

Community: contributing to CPAN modules

More flexible than shell scripting

Stronger regex support than Python initially

Older but more mature ecosystem than Ruby

Interpreted like Python or Ruby

Ideal for rapid prototyping and text-heavy tasks

1987 – Perl 1 released by Larry Wall

1991 – Perl 4 gains popularity on Unix systems

1994 – Perl 5 introduces modules and references

2000–2010 – CPAN matures and object-oriented features expand

2025 – Perl remains maintained with Perl 5 and Perl 7 initiatives

CPAN: Comprehensive Perl Archive Network

Scalar: single data value

Array: ordered list of scalars

Hash: key-value pair collection

Context: scalar or list context affecting evaluation