Introduction to Perl

• Creator: Larry Wall
• Introduced: 1987
• Open source
• Comes standard on many UNIX/Linux systems
• MacOS users are encouraged to use the PerlBrew distribution of Perl.
• Windows installer obtainable from http://strawberryperl.com and http://activestate.com
  • Strawberry Perl is recommended.
• Originally developed for text record manipulation
• Used for system administration, web development, network programming, system exploit testing

• CGI (web application) programming
  • Written in Perl (or was written in Perl originally): Slash, Bugzilla, TWiki, Movable Type
    • Wikipedia originally used a Wiki engine (CGI program) written in Perl called UseModWiki.
    • Perl CGI-type programs typically communicate with database backends
  • bbc.co.uk, amazon.com, livejournal.com, ticketmaster.com, imdb.com have used Perl extensively, at one point.
• Large-scale text processing for report generation
  • Has found past use in finance and bioinformatics fields for its ability to handle large data sets

• Perl 5 Official site
• Perl 6 Official site

• learn.perl.org
• Perl.org online library
• Picking Up Perl (online book)

• Programs typically given .pl extension
• Executed with perl -w prog.pl
• Or use shell script type line at top of Perl script
  • #!/path/to/perl -w
  • and make the program executable with chmod +x prog.pl
• Using the “-w” is encouraged for debugging.
  • -w issues warnings that would otherwise not be issued.

• A Perl motto: “There is more than one way to do it.”
  • Perl designed with this idea in mind

• print “Hello, world!\n”; # semicolon is mandatory like C/C++/Java/others
  • Comments begin with #, as in shell scripts, Tcl and older languages.

• print “ 0.25” * 4, “\n”; # output: 1
  • “ 0.25” is a string, but it is converted to a float and multiplied by 4 and concatenated with a line break (“\n”)
  • automatic conversion of scalars for “contextual polymorphism”
  • leading space is ignored

• Math operators are the familiar set from C/C++/Java

• String concatenation (.) and repetition (x) operators
  • print “Ba” . “na” x 4, “\n”; # output: Banananana

• Use $ all the time in front of variable names.

$name = "fred"; # variables are dynamically typed
print "My name is ", $name, "\n";

• Variables are global if not declared local with my $variable.
  • local Perl variables also called lexical

$name = "fred"; # This is global $name.
          
# Insert a block
{
   my $name = "joe"; 
      # This is local $name because of 'my'.
   print "Block local \$name is $name\n";
      # Using double quotes allows $name interpolation as
      # part of the print statement. The backslashed $ 
      # (\$name) suppresses variable interpolation.
}

print "Global \$name is ", $name, "\n";

• Some advocate using the my keyword for all variables, including global vars.

• Perl standard input with <STDIN>

print "Please enter something interesting: \n";
$comment = <STDIN>;
          
print "You entered: $comment\n";

• Standard input can be from the keyboard or redirected from a file or from another program.
  • Example of redirecting stdin from a file:

$ perl -w stdin_comment.pl < comment.txt

• Examples of redirecting stdin from a program:

$ echo "The ripest fruit falls first." | perl -w stdin_comment.pl

# If you have the fortune command installed ...
$ fortune | perl -w stdin_comment.pl

• <STDIN> reads up to and including the newline character

• The newline could be the user hitting <Enter> after inputting something or the newline at the end of a line in a text file.

• See standard file descriptors (CS-370)

• The Perl <STDIN> behavior of including newlines often needs to be accounted for.

print "Enter a five letter word guess, preferably \"Yoink\": ";
$userguess = <STDIN>;
chomp($userguess);
   # Removes trailing newline character only.
   # Test this without the chomp statement.
            
$secretword = "Yoink";
            
print "The result of the comparison: ", $userguess eq $secretword, "\n";
   # String comparison with 'eq' operator;
   # returns empty string if strings not equal;
   # returns 1 if strings equal.

• chop() function removes last character of string, whether it's a newline or not.

• length(): returns length of a string

print "Enter a string: ";
my $inpString = <STDIN>;
chomp($inpString); # Must do this, else length will return length + 1.
print "$inpString is ", length($inpString), " chars long.\n";

• lc(): converts all characters in a string to lowercase.

my $string = "Hello, World!";
my $lowercase = lc($string);
print "$lowercase\n";

• uc(): converts all characters in a string to uppercase.

my $string = "Hello, World!";
my $uppercase = uc($string);
print "$uppercase\n";

• index(): returns the position of the first occurrence of a substring within a string.

my $string = "Larry Wall Larry Wall";
my $substring = "Wall";
my $position = index($string, $substring);
print "$position\n";  # Output: 6

• rindex(): returns the position of the last occurrence of a substring within a string.

my $string = "Larry Wall Larry Wall";
my $substring = "Wall";
my $position = rindex($string, $substring);
print "$position\n";  # Output: 17

• substr(): extracts a substring from a string.

my $string = "Hello, World!";
my $substring = substr($string, 7, 5);
   # Starting at position 7, extract 5 characters
print "$substring\n";  # Output: World

• Commonly seen is the Perl function, die().

print "Enter a string to pass to die(): ";
chomp($string = <STDIN>);
            
die($string); # Outputs to STDERR, not STDOUT

print "This will not be printed.";

• die() outputs the Perl program name and the line number of the die() statement if the string argument does not end in newline, thus, the chomp() statement above.

• Familar (C/C++/Java syntax)

if ( $number != 0 ) {
   $result = 100 / $number;
}

if ( $password eq $guess ) {
   print "Pass, friend.\n";
} else {
   die "Go away, imposter!";
}

if ( $password eq $guess ) {
   print "Pass, friend.\n";
} elsif ( $password eq "Meh" } {
   print "Meh!\n";
} else {
   die "Go away, imposter!";
}

# Assuming $a is boolean
if ( not $a ) {
   print "\$a is not true\n";
}

# can also be expressed...

unless ( $a ) {
   print "\$a is not true\n";
}

• Choose the syntax that best fits your own thought patterns
  • “There's more than one way to do it.”

• Normal

if ($number == 0) {
   die "Can't divide by 0";
}

• Equivalent

die "Can't divide by 0" if $number == 0;

• while, until, for, foreach, do..while, do..until
  • while, for, do..while are C/C++/Java standard

until ( $countdown <= 0 ) {
   print "Counting down: $countdown\n";
   $countdown--;
}

# "for each number in the list 1 through 10"
foreach $number ( 1 .. 10 ) {
   print "The number is: $number\n";
}

• while ( $var = <STDIN> ) reads from standard input until end of file (control-d)
  • Reads a line at a time into $var

while ( $var = <STDIN> ) {
   print $var;
	  # Print each line of standard input.
}

• Can shorten to the following because it's such a common operation
  • $_ below is the default Perl variable

while ( <STDIN> ) {
   print $_;
}

• Create Perl lists with ()

print( "Hello, ", "world", "\n" );
   # 3 strings in a list being passed to print function

print( 123, 456, 789 );

foreach $number ( 1 .. 10 ) {
   # ( 1 .. 10 ) creates the list of numbers from 1 to 10

• Create Perl lists with qw (quote words)

qw/hello world good bye/
   # creates a 4 word list

• Use square brackets

print( ( 'salt', 'vinegar', 'mustard', 'pepper' )[ 2 ] );
   # output: mustard (count from zero)

my $month = 3;

print qw(
   Jan Feb Mar
   Apr May Jun
   Jul Aug Sep
   Oct Nov Dec
)[ $month ]
   # output: Apr

• Get more than one list value at a time

my $mone;
my $mtwo;
( $mone, $mtwo ) = ( 1, 3 );


my $m1;
my $m2;
my $m3;

( $m1, $m2, $m3 ) = qw(
                      Jan Feb Mar
                      Apr May Jun
                      Jul Aug Sep
                      Oct Nov Dec
                      )[ 2..4 ];

print $m1." ".$m2." ".$m3;

• Arrays are just named lists.
• Whole arrays are called @arrayName (start with '@')
  • Individual array elements (scalars) are accessed as $arrayName[ subscript ]

my @days = qw(Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun);
print @days, "\n";
   # Output: MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
print "@days\n";
   # Output: Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
   # By enclosing in "", have "stringified" @days
print $days[ 6 ], "\n"; 
# @days[ 6 ] can also be used, but see the warning at http://tiny.cc/f4t3vz

• $# is a special Perl variable
  • contains the last subscript (or index) of the array

• Looping through an array

my $i = 0;
while ( $i <= $#arrayName ) {
   # Do something with $arrayName[ $i ] here
   $i++;
}

• or

for ( my $i = 0; $i <= $#arrayName; $i++ ) {
   # Do something with $arrayName[ $i ] here
}

foreach my $i ( @arrayName ) {
   # Does not use $#.
   # Do something with $i here.
}

my @days = qw(Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun);
my @longweekend = @days[ 4..6 ];
   # Note use of @ instead of $ before days.
print "@longweekend\n";
   # Output: Fri Sat Sun

• reverse()

my @count = ( 1..5 );

foreach $each ( reverse( @count ) ) {
  print "$each...\n";
  sleep 1;
}

• sort()

my @unsorted = qw( Cohen Clapton Costello Rush ZZTop );
my @sorted = sort @unsorted;

• end or top functions: push(), pop()

my $hand;
my @pile = ( "letter", "newspaper", "bill", "notepad" );
print "You pick up something off the top of the pile.\n";
$hand = pop @pile;
   # "notepad" is removed from end (top) of @pile
print "You now have a $hand in your hand,\n \
and the pile contains:\n@pile";

print "You now put something on your pile.\n";
push @pile, "statement";
   # "statement" is added to the end (top) of @pile
print "Now the pile contains:\n@pile\n";

• beginning or bottom functions: shift(), unshift()

my @array = (); # nothing in array
unshift @array, "first";
print "Array is now: @array\n";
unshift @array, "second", "third";
print "Array is now: @array\n";
shift @array;
print "Array is now: @array\n";
   # //unshift// adds elements, //shift// deletes elements

• hashes or associative arrays
  • can be thought of as unordered arrays, using keys instead of array subscripts

• Whole hashes are called %hashname (start with '%').

%where = (
   Gary => "Dallas",
   Lucy => "Austin",
   Ian  => "Houston",
   Samantha => "Seattle"
);

• To the left of the ⇒ are the hash keys, to the right of ⇒ are the associated hash values.
  • hash keys must be unique

• Individual hash elements are accessed with $hashname{key}

my $who = "Ian";

my %where = (
   Gary => "Piscataway",
   Lucy => "Hackensack",
   Ian  => "Mahwah",
   Samantha => "Hoboken"
);

print "Gary lives in ", $where{Gary}, "\n";
print "$who lives in $where{$who}\n";

my %where = (
   Gary => "Piscataway",
   Lucy => "Hackensack",
   Ian  => "Mahwah",
   Samantha => "Hoboken"
);

$where{Eva} = "Howell";
   # We added a Eva => "Howell" key/value pair to the
   # %where hash

delete $where{Gary};
   # We deleted the Gary => "Piscataway" key/value pair

• Can't use while, for or foreach to directly iterate through hashes
  • Perl provides keys(), values() and each()

# use 'keys' function to iterate through hash keys
foreach $who ( keys %where ) {
   print "$who lives in $where{$who}\n";
}


# use 'values' function to iterate through hash values
foreach $town ( values %where ) {
   print "someone lives in $town\n";
}


# use 'each' function to iterate through hash key/value
# pairs
my ($name, $town);
   # an assignable list of variables
while ( ($name, $town) = each %where ) {
   print "$name lives in $town\n";
}

• Use exists() hash function to check if a key exists in a hash

print "Gary exists in the hash!\n" if exists $where{Gary};

• subroutines are functions
• define subroutine:

sub example_subroutine {
  ...
  # subroutine body
  ...
}

• define and call subroutine

greet();

sub greet {
   print "Hello, World!\n";
            }

• arguments are passed through another special Perl var, @_
  • notice that @_ is a special array

greet( "Jim", "Bob", "Russ" );
   # There isn't a set number of function arguments or a
   # function "prototype" to speak of

sub greet {
   foreach my $arg ( @_ ) {
	  print "Hello $arg!\n";
   }

   print "You're first, $_[ 0 ].\n";
   print "You're second, $_[ 1 ].\n";
   print "You're last, $_[ 2 ].\n";
}

• Use return
  • Can return a list of values.

my ($len1, $len2, $len3) = greet( "Jim", "Bob", "Russ" );
print "($len1, $len2, $len3)\n";

sub greet {
   foreach my $arg ( @_ ) {
	  print "Hello $arg!\n";
   }

   return (length($_[0]), length($_[1]), length($_[2]));
	  # return a list of 3 ints
}

• For anything beyond trivial text processing with Perl and other languages, you need a basic understanding of regular expressions (regex).
• See CS 370 intro to regular expressions for a start.
  • See links:
    • http://linuxreviews.org/beginner/tao_of_regular_expressions
    • ⇒⇒⇒⇒⇒⇒ https://perldoc.perl.org/perlrequick ⇐⇐⇐⇐⇐⇐
    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions
    • Regex chapter in "Beginning Perl"
    • Official Perl regular expressions documentation
    • Interactive regex testers:
      • http://www.regexr.com/
      • http://regexpal.com/

• Regular expression matching with the =~ operator

$var =~ m/regular expression/
   # boolean (true if match, false if no match)
   # can omit the "m": $var =~ /regular expression/
   
$var !~ m/regular expression/
   # true if not a match, false if a match

• Substitution using regular expressions

$var =~ s/search re/replace re/

my $name = "Joseph";
$name =~ s/[sph]//;  # delete first instance of s, p or h
print "$name\n";
$name =~ s/[sph]//g; # g -> delete every instance of s, p or h
print "$name\n";

• split() function splits strings using a regular expression as delimiter
  • default regular expression delimiter is /\s+/, so calling split by itself is equivalent to doing

split /\s+/, $_;
   # split the default variable, using one or more
   # whitespaces

• The split regexp delimiter is usually something simple

my $passwd = "jchung:x:1032:51:J. Chung, CS:/home/jchung:/bin/bash";
my @fields = split /:/, $passwd;

• join() function joins elements of a list using a specified delimiter string

my $last = "Jones";
my $first = "Bob";
my $name = join ", ", ($last, $first);

• We have used the <STDIN> statement and < filename redirection to process files such as cs498roster

• Suppose we want to be able to process files with a command like

$ perl -w perlex5.pl cs498roster cs598roster

• One way to accomplish this is with the <> (so-called diamond)

while (<>) {
	print "text read: $_";
}

• <> checks to see if the program (the Perl script) was invoked with command line arguments (file name or multiple file names)
  • If so, it reads the file(s) one at a time, one line at a time.

• The special Perl array @ARGV contains the command line arguments that a Perl script was invoked with.
  • <> gets file names from @ARGV by default

foreach my $arg ( @ARGV ) {
	print $arg;
}

or

for ( my $i = 0; $i <= $#ARGV; $i++ ) {
	print $ARGV[ $i ];
}

or

print "$_" foreach @ARGV; // Perl-speak

• Command line arguments aren't always file names.
  • Here, we're trying to get a help message from perlex6.pl by calling it with the –help command line argument
    • –help becomes the first element of @ARGV, $ARGV[ 0 ]

$ perl -w perlex6.pl --help

• Sometimes, command line arguments modify how a program will work.
  • Here, we're trying to make perlex6.pl sort rosters by last name:

$ perl -w perlex6.pl --last cs498roster cs598roster

• To remove an argument from @ARGV, shift it.

my $arg0 = shift @ARGV;
if ( $arg0 =~ /last/ ) ...
   # Process all non-file command line args before we
   # get to //while (<>)//

                while (<>) { ...

• Perl references hold the locations of other pieces of data
  • The backslash “\” is used to create references.
  • Here, $hash_r becomes a reference to the memory location of %hash:

my %hash = ( 
	apple => "crab",
	pear => "asian"
	);
my $hash_r = \%hash;

• Dereferencing
  • Use {} around reference name.

my %hash2 = %{$hash_r};
	# Set new %hash2 contents from the hash that is
	# referenced by $hash_r

• “…an object can be anything – it really depends on what your application is. … If you're communicating with a remote computer via FTP, you could make each connection to the remote server an object.”

• In Perl, what we see as an object is simply a reference…
  • In fact, you can convert any ordinary reference into an object simply by using the (Perl) bless() function.
  • Typically, however, objects are represented as references to a hash

• Perl Classes are often called Modules
  • Here, we'll use the Net::FTP module (example only; rockhopper does not run an anonymous ftp server):

use strict;
use Net::FTP;
   # This requires that FTP.pm be stored somewhere on the
   # local system that Perl searches through for modules.

my $ftp = Net::FTP->new("rockhopper.monmouth.edu")
   or die "Couldn't connect: $@\n";
	  # new() is a method of class Net::FTP; it's the
	  # constructor. $ftp is our FTP session object.

$ftp->login("anonymous");
   # New::FTP->login() method
$ftp->cwd("/");
$ftp->get("index.php");
$ftp->close();

• @INC contains the system file system paths that the Perl interpreter looks through for modules such as FTP.pm.

$ perl -V
...
@INC:
	/etc/perl
	/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8
	/usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8
	/usr/lib/perl5
	/usr/share/perl5
	/usr/lib/perl/5.8
	/usr/share/perl/5.8
	/usr/local/lib/site_perl
                .

• A module is a collection of subroutines (methods) and variables (attributes) that all work together to perform some set of tasks
• The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (http://www.cpan.org) was put together to organize and share the large collection of prewritten Perl modules.
  • Searchable at http://search.cpan.org
• The CPAN module naming hierarchy places modules in categories such as Sort::Fields, Sort::Versions or subcategories such as LWP::Protocol::http
  • On disk, the modules would look like …/Sort/Fields.pm, …/Sort/Versions.pm
  • For the LWP::Protocol::http module, the full path to the module might be /usr/share/perl5/LWP/Protocol/http.pm on a Linux system.
• How to know if a Perl module is installed?
  • You can run a Perl “one-liner” program using the “-e” option to check if a module is installed, e.g.,

# If the following runs with no errors, it means the LWP::Simple module is installed.
perl -e "use LWP::Simple"

• Perl modules are available for Web automation
  • Well-known modules are the LWP (“Library for WWW in Perl”) group of modules and WWW::Mechanize.
    • LWP - https://www.perl.com/pub/2002/08/20/perlandlwp.html/
    • WWW::Mechanize
      • https://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=1037506
      • http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Mechanize/lib/WWW/Mechanize/Examples.pod
    • Old article that describes Perl web automation: http://rockhopper.monmouth.edu/~jchung/docs/4915-1108-turoff.pdf

• Retry Perl Exercise 7 using a Web automation module such as LWP::Simple or WWW::Mechanize.

• For portability, use Perl equivalents to system commands, such as Perl's chdir(), function instead of cd.
  • NOTE: This is applicable to all programming languages that can call system commands.

• But if using system commands is a necessity, use system()

system( '/usr/games/fortune' );

• Command substitution is done using backticks ``
  • Sometimes we want to capture the output of system commands to use in a Perl script.

my $sysdate = `date`;