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.\" ========================================================================
.TH PERLDATA 1 "2006-01-07" "perl v5.8.8" "Perl Programmers Reference Guide"
perldata \- Perl data types
.IX Xref "variable, name variable name data type type"
.IX Subsection "Variable names"
Perl has three built-in data types: scalars, arrays of scalars, and
associative arrays of scalars, known as \*(L"hashes\*(R". A scalar is a
single string (of any size, limited only by the available memory),
number, or a reference to something (which will be discussed
in perlref). Normal arrays are ordered lists of scalars indexed
by number, starting with 0. Hashes are unordered collections of scalar
values indexed by their associated string key.
Values are usually referred to by name, or through a named reference.
The first character of the name tells you to what sort of data
structure it refers. The rest of the name tells you the particular
value to which it refers. Usually this name is a single \fIidentifier\fR,
that is, a string beginning with a letter or underscore, and
containing letters, underscores, and digits. In some cases, it may
be a chain of identifiers, separated by \f(CW\*(C`::\*(C'\fR (or by the slightly
archaic \f(CW\*(C`'\*(C'\fR); all but the last are interpreted as names of packages,
to locate the namespace in which to look up the final identifier
(see \*(L"Packages\*(R" in perlmod for details). It's possible to substitute
for a simple identifier, an expression that produces a reference
to the value at runtime. This is described in more detail below
Perl also has its own built-in variables whose names don't follow
these rules. They have strange names so they don't accidentally
collide with one of your normal variables. Strings that match
parenthesized parts of a regular expression are saved under names
containing only digits after the \f(CW\*(C`$\*(C'\fR (see perlop and perlre).
In addition, several special variables that provide windows into
the inner working of Perl have names containing punctuation characters
and control characters. These are documented in perlvar.
.IX Xref "variable, built-in"
Scalar values are always named with '$', even when referring to a
scalar that is part of an array or a hash. The '$' symbol works
semantically like the English word \*(L"the\*(R" in that it indicates a
single value is expected.
\& $days # the simple scalar value "days"
\& $days[28] # the 29th element of array @days
\& $days{'Feb'} # the 'Feb' value from hash %days
\& $#days # the last index of array @days
Entire arrays (and slices of arrays and hashes) are denoted by '@',
which works much like the word \*(L"these\*(R" or \*(L"those\*(R" does in English,
in that it indicates multiple values are expected.
\& @days # ($days[0], $days[1],... $days[n])
\& @days[3,4,5] # same as ($days[3],$days[4],$days[5])
\& @days{'a','c'} # same as ($days{'a'},$days{'c'})
Entire hashes are denoted by '%':
\& %days # (key1, val1, key2, val2 ...)
In addition, subroutines are named with an initial '&', though this
is optional when unambiguous, just as the word \*(L"do\*(R" is often redundant
in English. Symbol table entries can be named with an initial '*',
but you don't really care about that yet (if ever :\-).
Every variable type has its own namespace, as do several
non-variable identifiers. This means that you can, without fear
of conflict, use the same name for a scalar variable, an array, or
a hash\*(--or, for that matter, for a filehandle, a directory handle, a
subroutine name, a format name, or a label. This means that \f(CW$foo\fR
and \f(CW@foo\fR are two different variables. It also means that \f(CW$foo[1]\fR
is a part of \f(CW@foo\fR, not a part of \f(CW$foo\fR. This may seem a bit weird,
but that's okay, because it is weird.
Because variable references always start with '$', '@', or '%', the
\&\*(L"reserved\*(R" words aren't in fact reserved with respect to variable
names. They \fIare\fR reserved with respect to labels and filehandles,
however, which don't have an initial special character. You can't
have a filehandle named \*(L"log\*(R", for instance. Hint: you could say
\&\f(CW\*(C`open(LOG,'logfile')\*(C'\fR rather than \f(CW\*(C`open(log,'logfile')\*(C'\fR. Using
uppercase filehandles also improves readability and protects you
from conflict with future reserved words. Case \fIis\fR significant\-\-\*(L"\s-1FOO\s0\*(R",
\&\*(L"Foo\*(R", and \*(L"foo\*(R" are all different names. Names that start with a
letter or underscore may also contain digits and underscores.
.IX Xref "identifier, case sensitivity case"
It is possible to replace such an alphanumeric name with an expression
that returns a reference to the appropriate type. For a description
Names that start with a digit may contain only more digits. Names
that do not start with a letter, underscore, digit or a caret (i.e.
a control character) are limited to one character, e.g., \f(CW$%\fR or
\&\f(CW$$\fR. (Most of these one character names have a predefined
significance to Perl. For instance, \f(CW$$\fR is the current process
.IX Xref "context scalar context list context"
The interpretation of operations and values in Perl sometimes depends
on the requirements of the context around the operation or value.
There are two major contexts: list and scalar. Certain operations
return list values in contexts wanting a list, and scalar values
otherwise. If this is true of an operation it will be mentioned in
the documentation for that operation. In other words, Perl overloads
certain operations based on whether the expected return value is
singular or plural. Some words in English work this way, like \*(L"fish\*(R"
In a reciprocal fashion, an operation provides either a scalar or a
list context to each of its arguments. For example, if you say
the integer operation provides scalar context for the <>
operator, which responds by reading one line from \s-1STDIN\s0 and passing it
back to the integer operation, which will then find the integer value
of that line and return that. If, on the other hand, you say
then the sort operation provides list context for <>, which
will proceed to read every line available up to the end of file, and
pass that list of lines back to the sort routine, which will then
sort those lines and return them as a list to whatever the context
Assignment is a little bit special in that it uses its left argument
to determine the context for the right argument. Assignment to a
scalar evaluates the right-hand side in scalar context, while
assignment to an array or hash evaluates the righthand side in list
context. Assignment to a list (or slice, which is just a list
anyway) also evaluates the righthand side in list context.
When you use the \f(CW\*(C`use warnings\*(C'\fR pragma or Perl's \fB\-w\fR command-line
option, you may see warnings
about useless uses of constants or functions in \*(L"void context\*(R".
Void context just means the value has been discarded, such as a
statement containing only \f(CW\*(C`"fred";\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`getpwuid(0);\*(C'\fR. It still
counts as scalar context for functions that care whether or not
they're being called in list context.
User-defined subroutines may choose to care whether they are being
called in a void, scalar, or list context. Most subroutines do not
need to bother, though. That's because both scalars and lists are
automatically interpolated into lists. See \*(L"wantarray\*(R" in perlfunc
for how you would dynamically discern your function's calling
.IX Xref "scalar number string reference"
.IX Subsection "Scalar values"
All data in Perl is a scalar, an array of scalars, or a hash of
scalars. A scalar may contain one single value in any of three
different flavors: a number, a string, or a reference. In general,
conversion from one form to another is transparent. Although a
scalar may not directly hold multiple values, it may contain a
reference to an array or hash which in turn contains multiple values.
Scalars aren't necessarily one thing or another. There's no place
to declare a scalar variable to be of type \*(L"string\*(R", type \*(L"number\*(R",
type \*(L"reference\*(R", or anything else. Because of the automatic
conversion of scalars, operations that return scalars don't need
to care (and in fact, cannot care) whether their caller is looking
for a string, a number, or a reference. Perl is a contextually
polymorphic language whose scalars can be strings, numbers, or
references (which includes objects). Although strings and numbers
are considered pretty much the same thing for nearly all purposes,
references are strongly\-typed, uncastable pointers with builtin
reference-counting and destructor invocation.
A scalar value is interpreted as \s-1TRUE\s0 in the Boolean sense if it is not
the null string or the number 0 (or its string equivalent, \*(L"0\*(R"). The
Boolean context is just a special kind of scalar context where no
conversion to a string or a number is ever performed.
.IX Xref "boolean bool true false truth"
There are actually two varieties of null strings (sometimes referred
to as \*(L"empty\*(R" strings), a defined one and an undefined one. The
defined version is just a string of length zero, such as \f(CW""\fR.
The undefined version is the value that indicates that there is
no real value for something, such as when there was an error, or
at end of file, or when you refer to an uninitialized variable or
element of an array or hash. Although in early versions of Perl,
an undefined scalar could become defined when first used in a
place expecting a defined value, this no longer happens except for
rare cases of autovivification as explained in perlref. You can
use the \fIdefined()\fR operator to determine whether a scalar value is
defined (this has no meaning on arrays or hashes), and the \fIundef()\fR
operator to produce an undefined value.
.IX Xref "defined undefined undef null string, null"
To find out whether a given string is a valid non-zero number, it's
sometimes enough to test it against both numeric 0 and also lexical
\&\*(L"0\*(R" (although this will cause noises if warnings are on). That's
because strings that aren't numbers count as 0, just as they do in \fBawk\fR:
\& if ($str == 0 && $str ne "0") {
\& warn "That doesn't look like a number";
That method may be best because otherwise you won't treat \s-1IEEE\s0
notations like \f(CW\*(C`NaN\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`Infinity\*(C'\fR properly. At other times, you
might prefer to determine whether string data can be used numerically
by calling the \fIPOSIX::strtod()\fR function or by inspecting your string
with a regular expression (as documented in perlre).
\& warn "has nondigits" if /\eD/;
\& warn "not a natural number" unless /^\ed+$/; # rejects -3
\& warn "not an integer" unless /^-?\ed+$/; # rejects +3
\& warn "not an integer" unless /^[+-]?\ed+$/;
\& warn "not a decimal number" unless /^-?\ed+\e.?\ed*$/; # rejects .2
\& warn "not a decimal number" unless /^-?(?:\ed+(?:\e.\ed*)?|\e.\ed+)$/;
\& unless /^([+-]?)(?=\ed|\e.\ed)\ed*(\e.\ed*)?([Ee]([+-]?\ed+))?$/;
The length of an array is a scalar value. You may find the length
of array \f(CW@days\fR by evaluating \f(CW$#days\fR, as in \fBcsh\fR. However, this
isn't the length of the array; it's the subscript of the last element,
which is a different value since there is ordinarily a 0th element.
Assigning to \f(CW$#days\fR actually changes the length of the array.
Shortening an array this way destroys intervening values. Lengthening
an array that was previously shortened does not recover values
that were in those elements. (It used to do so in Perl 4, but we
had to break this to make sure destructors were called when expected.)
.IX Xref "$# array, length"
You can also gain some minuscule measure of efficiency by pre-extending
an array that is going to get big. You can also extend an array
by assigning to an element that is off the end of the array. You
can truncate an array down to nothing by assigning the null list
() to it. The following are equivalent:
If you evaluate an array in scalar context, it returns the length
of the array. (Note that this is not true of lists, which return
the last value, like the C comma operator, nor of built-in functions,
which return whatever they feel like returning.) The following is
\& scalar(@whatever) == $#whatever - $[ + 1;
Version 5 of Perl changed the semantics of \f(CW$[\fR: files that don't set
the value of \f(CW$[\fR no longer need to worry about whether another
file changed its value. (In other words, use of \f(CW$[\fR is deprecated.)
So in general you can assume that
\& scalar(@whatever) == $#whatever + 1;
Some programmers choose to use an explicit conversion so as to
\& $element_count = scalar(@whatever);
If you evaluate a hash in scalar context, it returns false if the
hash is empty. If there are any key/value pairs, it returns true;
more precisely, the value returned is a string consisting of the
number of used buckets and the number of allocated buckets, separated
by a slash. This is pretty much useful only to find out whether
Perl's internal hashing algorithm is performing poorly on your data
set. For example, you stick 10,000 things in a hash, but evaluating
\&\f(CW%HASH\fR in scalar context reveals \f(CW"1/16"\fR, which means only one out
of sixteen buckets has been touched, and presumably contains all
10,000 of your items. This isn't supposed to happen.
.IX Xref "hash, scalar context hash, bucket bucket"
You can preallocate space for a hash by assigning to the \fIkeys()\fR function.
This rounds up the allocated buckets to the next power of two:
\& keys(%users) = 1000; # allocate 1024 buckets
.Sh "Scalar value constructors"
.IX Xref "scalar, literal scalar, constant"
.IX Subsection "Scalar value constructors"
Numeric literals are specified in any of the following floating point or
\& .23E-10 # a very small number
\& 3.14_15_92 # a very important number
\& 4_294_967_296 # underscore for legibility
\& 0xdead_beef # more hex
\& 0377 # octal (only numbers, begins with 0)
You are allowed to use underscores (underbars) in numeric literals
between digits for legibility. You could, for example, group binary
digits by threes (as for a Unix-style mode argument such as 0b110_100_100)
or by fours (to represent nibbles, as in 0b1010_0110) or in other groups.
.IX Xref "number, literal"
String literals are usually delimited by either single or double
quotes. They work much like quotes in the standard Unix shells:
double-quoted string literals are subject to backslash and variable
substitution; single-quoted strings are not (except for \f(CW\*(C`\e'\*(C'\fR and
\&\f(CW\*(C`\e\e\*(C'\fR). The usual C\-style backslash rules apply for making
characters such as newline, tab, etc., as well as some more exotic
forms. See \*(L"Quote and Quote-like Operators\*(R" in perlop for a list.
.IX Xref "string, literal"
Hexadecimal, octal, or binary, representations in string literals
(e.g. '0xff') are not automatically converted to their integer
representation. The \fIhex()\fR and \fIoct()\fR functions make these conversions
for you. See \*(L"hex\*(R" in perlfunc and \*(L"oct\*(R" in perlfunc for more details.
You can also embed newlines directly in your strings, i.e., they can end
on a different line than they begin. This is nice, but if you forget
your trailing quote, the error will not be reported until Perl finds
another line containing the quote character, which may be much further
on in the script. Variable substitution inside strings is limited to
scalar variables, arrays, and array or hash slices. (In other words,
names beginning with $ or @, followed by an optional bracketed
expression as a subscript.) The following code segment prints out "The
\& $Price = '$100'; # not interpolated
\& print "The price is $Price.\en"; # interpolated
There is no double interpolation in Perl, so the \f(CW$100\fR is left as is.
As in some shells, you can enclose the variable name in braces to
disambiguate it from following alphanumerics (and underscores).
this when interpolating a variable into a string to separate the
variable name from a following double-colon or an apostrophe, since
these would be otherwise treated as a package separator:
\& print PASSWD "${who}::0:0:Superuser:/:/bin/perl\en";
\& print "We use ${who}speak when ${who}'s here.\en";
Without the braces, Perl would have looked for a \f(CW$whospeak\fR, a
\&\f(CW$who::0\fR, and a \f(CW$who's\fR variable. The last two would be the
\&\f(CW$0\fR and the \f(CW$s\fR variables in the (presumably) non-existent package
In fact, an identifier within such curlies is forced to be a string,
as is any simple identifier within a hash subscript. Neither need
quoting. Our earlier example, \f(CW$days{'Feb'}\fR can be written as
\&\f(CW$days{Feb}\fR and the quotes will be assumed automatically. But
anything more complicated in the subscript will be interpreted as an
expression. This means for example that \f(CW\*(C`$version{2.0}++\*(C'\fR is
equivalent to \f(CW\*(C`$version{2}++\*(C'\fR, not to \f(CW\*(C`$version{'2.0'}++\*(C'\fR.
.IX Xref "version string vstring v-string"
.IX Subsection "Version Strings"
\&\fBNote:\fR Version Strings (v\-strings) have been deprecated. They will
not be available after Perl 5.8. The marginal benefits of v\-strings
were greatly outweighed by the potential for Surprise and Confusion.
A literal of the form \f(CW\*(C`v1.20.300.4000\*(C'\fR is parsed as a string composed
of characters with the specified ordinals. This form, known as
v\-strings, provides an alternative, more readable way to construct
strings, rather than use the somewhat less readable interpolation form
\&\f(CW"\ex{1}\ex{14}\ex{12c}\ex{fa0}"\fR. This is useful for representing
Unicode strings, and for comparing version \*(L"numbers\*(R" using the string
comparison operators, \f(CW\*(C`cmp\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`gt\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`lt\*(C'\fR etc. If there are two or
more dots in the literal, the leading \f(CW\*(C`v\*(C'\fR may be omitted.
\& print v9786; # prints UTF-8 encoded SMILEY, "\ex{263a}"
\& print v102.111.111; # prints "foo"
\& print 102.111.111; # same
Such literals are accepted by both \f(CW\*(C`require\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`use\*(C'\fR for
doing a version check. The \f(CW$^V\fR special variable also contains the
running Perl interpreter's version in this form. See \*(L"$^V\*(R" in perlvar.
Note that using the v\-strings for IPv4 addresses is not portable unless
you also use the \fIinet_aton()\fR/\fIinet_ntoa()\fR routines of the Socket package.
Note that since Perl 5.8.1 the single-number v\-strings (like \f(CW\*(C`v65\*(C'\fR)
are not v\-strings before the \f(CW\*(C`=>\*(C'\fR operator (which is usually used
to separate a hash key from a hash value), instead they are interpreted
as literal strings ('v65'). They were v\-strings from Perl 5.6.0 to
Perl 5.8.0, but that caused more confusion and breakage than good.
Multi-number v\-strings like \f(CW\*(C`v65.66\*(C'\fR and \f(CW65.66.67\fR continue to
.IX Xref "special literal __END__ __DATA__ END DATA end data ^D ^Z"
.IX Subsection "Special Literals"
The special literals _\|_FILE_\|_, _\|_LINE_\|_, and _\|_PACKAGE_\|_
represent the current filename, line number, and package name at that
point in your program. They may be used only as separate tokens; they
will not be interpolated into strings. If there is no current package
(due to an empty \f(CW\*(C`package;\*(C'\fR directive), _\|_PACKAGE_\|_ is the undefined
.IX Xref "__FILE__ __LINE__ __PACKAGE__ line file package"
The two control characters ^D and ^Z, and the tokens _\|_END_\|_ and _\|_DATA_\|_
may be used to indicate the logical end of the script before the actual
end of file. Any following text is ignored.
Text after _\|_DATA_\|_ but may be read via the filehandle \f(CW\*(C`PACKNAME::DATA\*(C'\fR,
where \f(CW\*(C`PACKNAME\*(C'\fR is the package that was current when the _\|_DATA_\|_
token was encountered. The filehandle is left open pointing to the
contents after _\|_DATA_\|_. It is the program's responsibility to
\&\f(CW\*(C`close DATA\*(C'\fR when it is done reading from it. For compatibility with
older scripts written before _\|_DATA_\|_ was introduced, _\|_END_\|_ behaves
like _\|_DATA_\|_ in the toplevel script (but not in files loaded with
\&\f(CW\*(C`require\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`do\*(C'\fR) and leaves the remaining contents of the
file accessible via \f(CW\*(C`main::DATA\*(C'\fR.
See SelfLoader for more description of _\|_DATA_\|_, and
an example of its use. Note that you cannot read from the \s-1DATA\s0
filehandle in a \s-1BEGIN\s0 block: the \s-1BEGIN\s0 block is executed as soon
as it is seen (during compilation), at which point the corresponding
_\|_DATA_\|_ (or _\|_END_\|_) token has not yet been seen.
.IX Subsection "Barewords"
A word that has no other interpretation in the grammar will
be treated as if it were a quoted string. These are known as
\&\*(L"barewords\*(R". As with filehandles and labels, a bareword that consists
entirely of lowercase letters risks conflict with future reserved
words, and if you use the \f(CW\*(C`use warnings\*(C'\fR pragma or the \fB\-w\fR switch,
Perl will warn you about any
such words. Some people may wish to outlaw barewords entirely. If you
then any bareword that would \s-1NOT\s0 be interpreted as a subroutine call
produces a compile-time error instead. The restriction lasts to the
end of the enclosing block. An inner block may countermand this
by saying \f(CW\*(C`no strict 'subs'\*(C'\fR.
\fIArray Joining Delimiter\fR
.IX Xref "array, interpolation interpolation, array $"""
.IX Subsection "Array Joining Delimiter"
Arrays and slices are interpolated into double-quoted strings
by joining the elements with the delimiter specified in the \f(CW$"\fR
variable (\f(CW$LIST_SEPARATOR\fR if \*(L"use English;\*(R" is specified),
space by default. The following are equivalent:
\& $temp = join($", @ARGV);
Within search patterns (which also undergo double-quotish substitution)
there is an unfortunate ambiguity: Is \f(CW\*(C`/$foo[bar]/\*(C'\fR to be interpreted as
\&\f(CW\*(C`/${foo}[bar]/\*(C'\fR (where \f(CW\*(C`[bar]\*(C'\fR is a character class for the regular
expression) or as \f(CW\*(C`/${foo[bar]}/\*(C'\fR (where \f(CW\*(C`[bar]\*(C'\fR is the subscript to array
\&\f(CW@foo\fR)? If \f(CW@foo\fR doesn't otherwise exist, then it's obviously a
character class. If \f(CW@foo\fR exists, Perl takes a good guess about \f(CW\*(C`[bar]\*(C'\fR,
and is almost always right. If it does guess wrong, or if you're just
plain paranoid, you can force the correct interpretation with curly
If you're looking for the information on how to use here\-documents,
which used to be here, that's been moved to
\&\*(L"Quote and Quote-like Operators\*(R" in perlop.
.Sh "List value constructors"
.IX Subsection "List value constructors"
List values are denoted by separating individual values by commas
(and enclosing the list in parentheses where precedence requires it):
In a context not requiring a list value, the value of what appears
to be a list literal is simply the value of the final element, as
with the C comma operator. For example,
\& @foo = ('cc', '-E', $bar);
assigns the entire list value to array \f(CW@foo\fR, but
\& $foo = ('cc', '-E', $bar);
assigns the value of variable \f(CW$bar\fR to the scalar variable \f(CW$foo\fR.
Note that the value of an actual array in scalar context is the
length of the array; the following assigns the value 3 to \f(CW$foo:\fR
\& @foo = ('cc', '-E', $bar);
\& $foo = @foo; # $foo gets 3
You may have an optional comma before the closing parenthesis of a
list literal, so that you can say:
To use a here-document to assign an array, one line per element,
you might use an approach like this:
\& @sauces = <<End_Lines =~ m/(\eS.*\eS)/g;
LISTs do automatic interpolation of sublists. That is, when a \s-1LIST\s0 is
evaluated, each element of the list is evaluated in list context, and
the resulting list value is interpolated into \s-1LIST\s0 just as if each
individual element were a member of \s-1LIST\s0. Thus arrays and hashes lose their
identity in a LIST\*(--the list
\& (@foo,@bar,&SomeSub,%glarch)
contains all the elements of \f(CW@foo\fR followed by all the elements of \f(CW@bar\fR,
followed by all the elements returned by the subroutine named SomeSub
called in list context, followed by the key/value pairs of \f(CW%glarch\fR.
To make a list reference that does \fI\s-1NOT\s0\fR interpolate, see perlref.
The null list is represented by (). Interpolating it in a list
has no effect. Thus ((),(),()) is equivalent to (). Similarly,
interpolating an array with no elements is the same as if no
array had been interpolated at that point.
This interpolation combines with the facts that the opening
and closing parentheses are optional (except when necessary for
precedence) and lists may end with an optional comma to mean that
multiple commas within lists are legal syntax. The list \f(CW\*(C`1,,3\*(C'\fR is a
concatenation of two lists, \f(CW\*(C`1,\*(C'\fR and \f(CW3\fR, the first of which ends
with that optional comma. \f(CW\*(C`1,,3\*(C'\fR is \f(CW\*(C`(1,),(3)\*(C'\fR is \f(CW\*(C`1,3\*(C'\fR (And
similarly for \f(CW\*(C`1,,,3\*(C'\fR is \f(CW\*(C`(1,),(,),3\*(C'\fR is \f(CW\*(C`1,3\*(C'\fR and so on.) Not that
we'd advise you to use this obfuscation.
A list value may also be subscripted like a normal array. You must
put the list in parentheses to avoid ambiguity. For example:
\& # Stat returns list value.
\& $time = (stat($file))[8];
\& $time = stat($file)[8]; # OOPS, FORGOT PARENTHESES
\& $hexdigit = ('a','b','c','d','e','f')[$digit-10];
\& # A "reverse comma operator".
\& return (pop(@foo),pop(@foo))[0];
Lists may be assigned to only when each element of the list
is itself legal to assign to:
\& ($a, $b, $c) = (1, 2, 3);
\& ($map{'red'}, $map{'blue'}, $map{'green'}) = (0x00f, 0x0f0, 0xf00);
An exception to this is that you may assign to \f(CW\*(C`undef\*(C'\fR in a list.
This is useful for throwing away some of the return values of a
\& ($dev, $ino, undef, undef, $uid, $gid) = stat($file);
List assignment in scalar context returns the number of elements
produced by the expression on the right side of the assignment:
\& $x = (($foo,$bar) = (3,2,1)); # set $x to 3, not 2
\& $x = (($foo,$bar) = f()); # set $x to f()'s return count
This is handy when you want to do a list assignment in a Boolean
context, because most list functions return a null list when finished,
which when assigned produces a 0, which is interpreted as \s-1FALSE\s0.
It's also the source of a useful idiom for executing a function or
performing an operation in list context and then counting the number of
return values, by assigning to an empty list and then using that
assignment in scalar context. For example, this code:
\& $count = () = $string =~ /\ed+/g;
will place into \f(CW$count\fR the number of digit groups found in \f(CW$string\fR.
This happens because the pattern match is in list context (since it
is being assigned to the empty list), and will therefore return a list
of all matching parts of the string. The list assignment in scalar
context will translate that into the number of elements (here, the
number of times the pattern matched) and assign that to \f(CW$count\fR. Note
\& $count = $string =~ /\ed+/g;
would not have worked, since a pattern match in scalar context will
only return true or false, rather than a count of matches.
The final element of a list assignment may be an array or a hash:
\& ($a, $b, @rest) = split;
\& my($a, $b, %rest) = @_;
You can actually put an array or hash anywhere in the list, but the first one
in the list will soak up all the values, and anything after it will become
undefined. This may be useful in a \fImy()\fR or \fIlocal()\fR.
A hash can be initialized using a literal list holding pairs of
items to be interpreted as a key and a value:
\& # same as map assignment above
\& %map = ('red',0x00f,'blue',0x0f0,'green',0xf00);
While literal lists and named arrays are often interchangeable, that's
not the case for hashes. Just because you can subscript a list value like
a normal array does not mean that you can subscript a list value as a
hash. Likewise, hashes included as parts of other lists (including
parameters lists and return lists from functions) always flatten out into
key/value pairs. That's why it's good to use references sometimes.
It is often more readable to use the \f(CW\*(C`=>\*(C'\fR operator between key/value
pairs. The \f(CW\*(C`=>\*(C'\fR operator is mostly just a more visually distinctive
synonym for a comma, but it also arranges for its left-hand operand to be
interpreted as a string \*(-- if it's a bareword that would be a legal simple
identifier (\f(CW\*(C`=>\*(C'\fR doesn't quote compound identifiers, that contain
double colons). This makes it nice for initializing hashes:
or for initializing hash references to be used as records:
\& witch => 'Mable the Merciless',
\& cat => 'Fluffy the Ferocious',
or for using call-by-named-parameter to complicated functions:
\& $field = $query->radio_group(
\& values => ['eenie','meenie','minie'],
Note that just because a hash is initialized in that order doesn't
mean that it comes out in that order. See \*(L"sort\*(R" in perlfunc for examples
of how to arrange for an output ordering.
.IX Subsection "Subscripts"
An array is subscripted by specifying a dollar sign (\f(CW\*(C`$\*(C'\fR), then the
name of the array (without the leading \f(CW\*(C`@\*(C'\fR), then the subscript inside
square brackets. For example:
\& @myarray = (5, 50, 500, 5000);
\& print "Element Number 2 is", $myarray[2], "\en";
The array indices start with 0. A negative subscript retrieves its
value from the end. In our example, \f(CW$myarray[\-1]\fR would have been
5000, and \f(CW$myarray[\-2]\fR would have been 500.
Hash subscripts are similar, only instead of square brackets curly brackets
\& "Einstein" => "Albert",
\& "Darwin" => "Charles",
\& "Feynman" => "Richard",
\& print "Darwin's First Name is ", $scientists{"Darwin"}, "\en";
.IX Xref "slice array, slice hash, slice"
A common way to access an array or a hash is one scalar element at a
time. You can also subscript a list to get a single element from it.
\& $whoami = $ENV{"USER"}; # one element from the hash
\& $parent = $ISA[0]; # one element from the array
\& $dir = (getpwnam("daemon"))[7]; # likewise, but with list
A slice accesses several elements of a list, an array, or a hash
simultaneously using a list of subscripts. It's more convenient
than writing out the individual elements as a list of separate
\& ($him, $her) = @folks[0,-1]; # array slice
\& @them = @folks[0 .. 3]; # array slice
\& ($who, $home) = @ENV{"USER", "HOME"}; # hash slice
\& ($uid, $dir) = (getpwnam("daemon"))[2,7]; # list slice
Since you can assign to a list of variables, you can also assign to
\& @days[3..5] = qw/Wed Thu Fri/;
\& @colors{'red','blue','green'}
\& = (0xff0000, 0x0000ff, 0x00ff00);
\& @folks[0, -1] = @folks[-1, 0];
The previous assignments are exactly equivalent to
\& ($days[3], $days[4], $days[5]) = qw/Wed Thu Fri/;
\& ($colors{'red'}, $colors{'blue'}, $colors{'green'})
\& = (0xff0000, 0x0000ff, 0x00ff00);
\& ($folks[0], $folks[-1]) = ($folks[-1], $folks[0]);
Since changing a slice changes the original array or hash that it's
slicing, a \f(CW\*(C`foreach\*(C'\fR construct will alter some\*(--or even all\*(--of the
values of the array or hash.
\& foreach (@array[ 4 .. 10 ]) { s/peter/paul/ }
\& foreach (@hash{qw[key1 key2]}) {
\& s/^\es+//; # trim leading whitespace
\& s/\es+$//; # trim trailing whitespace
\& s/(\ew+)/\eu\eL$1/g; # "titlecase" words
A slice of an empty list is still an empty list. Thus:
\& @a = ()[1,0]; # @a has no elements
\& @b = (@a)[0,1]; # @b has no elements
\& @c = (0,1)[2,3]; # @c has no elements
\& @a = (1)[1,0]; # @a has two elements
\& @b = (1,undef)[1,0,2]; # @b has three elements
This makes it easy to write loops that terminate when a null list
\& while ( ($home, $user) = (getpwent)[7,0]) {
\& printf "%-8s %s\en", $user, $home;
As noted earlier in this document, the scalar sense of list assignment
is the number of elements on the right-hand side of the assignment.
The null list contains no elements, so when the password file is
exhausted, the result is 0, not 2.
If you're confused about why you use an '@' there on a hash slice
instead of a '%', think of it like this. The type of bracket (square
or curly) governs whether it's an array or a hash being looked at.
On the other hand, the leading symbol ('$' or '@') on the array or
hash indicates whether you are getting back a singular value (a
scalar) or a plural one (a list).
.Sh "Typeglobs and Filehandles"
.IX Xref "typeglob filehandle *"
.IX Subsection "Typeglobs and Filehandles"
Perl uses an internal type called a \fItypeglob\fR to hold an entire
symbol table entry. The type prefix of a typeglob is a \f(CW\*(C`*\*(C'\fR, because
it represents all types. This used to be the preferred way to
pass arrays and hashes by reference into a function, but now that
we have real references, this is seldom needed.
The main use of typeglobs in modern Perl is create symbol table aliases.
makes \f(CW$this\fR an alias for \f(CW$that\fR, \f(CW@this\fR an alias for \f(CW@that\fR, \f(CW%this\fR an alias
for \f(CW%that\fR, &this an alias for &that, etc. Much safer is to use a reference.
\& local *Here::blue = \e$There::green;
temporarily makes \f(CW$Here::blue\fR an alias for \f(CW$There::green\fR, but doesn't
make \f(CW@Here::blue\fR an alias for \f(CW@There::green\fR, or \f(CW%Here::blue\fR an alias for
\&\f(CW%There::green\fR, etc. See \*(L"Symbol Tables\*(R" in perlmod for more examples
of this. Strange though this may seem, this is the basis for the whole
module import/export system.
Another use for typeglobs is to pass filehandles into a function or
to create new filehandles. If you need to use a typeglob to save away
a filehandle, do it this way:
or perhaps as a real reference, like this:
See perlsub for examples of using these as indirect filehandles
Typeglobs are also a way to create a local filehandle using the \fIlocal()\fR
operator. These last until their block is exited, but may be passed back.
\& open (FH, $path) or return undef;
\& $fh = newopen('/etc/passwd');
Now that we have the \f(CW*foo{THING}\fR notation, typeglobs aren't used as much
for filehandle manipulations, although they're still needed to pass brand
new file and directory handles into or out of functions. That's because
\&\f(CW*HANDLE{IO}\fR only works if \s-1HANDLE\s0 has already been used as a handle.
In other words, \f(CW*FH\fR must be used to create new symbol table entries;
\&\f(CW*foo{THING}\fR cannot. When in doubt, use \f(CW*FH\fR.
All functions that are capable of creating filehandles (\fIopen()\fR,
\&\fIopendir()\fR, \fIpipe()\fR, \fIsocketpair()\fR, \fIsysopen()\fR, \fIsocket()\fR, and \fIaccept()\fR)
automatically create an anonymous filehandle if the handle passed to
them is an uninitialized scalar variable. This allows the constructs
such as \f(CW\*(C`open(my $fh, ...)\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`open(local $fh,...)\*(C'\fR to be used to
create filehandles that will conveniently be closed automatically when
the scope ends, provided there are no other references to them. This
largely eliminates the need for typeglobs when opening filehandles
that must be passed around, as in the following example:
\& or die "Can't open '@_': $!";
\& my $f = myopen("</etc/motd");
\& # $f implicitly closed here
Note that if an initialized scalar variable is used instead the
result is different: \f(CW\*(C`my $fh='zzz'; open($fh, ...)\*(C'\fR is equivalent
to \f(CW\*(C`open( *{'zzz'}, ...)\*(C'\fR.
\&\f(CW\*(C`use strict 'refs'\*(C'\fR forbids such practice.
Another way to create anonymous filehandles is with the Symbol
module or with the IO::Handle module and its ilk. These modules
have the advantage of not hiding different types of the same name
during the \fIlocal()\fR. See the bottom of \*(L"\fIopen()\fR\*(R" in perlfunc for an
See perlvar for a description of Perl's built-in variables and
a discussion of legal variable names. See perlref, perlsub,
and \*(L"Symbol Tables\*(R" in perlmod for more discussion on typeglobs and
the \f(CW*foo{THING}\fR syntax.
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