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====== Perl Cheat Sheet ======

[[http://www.perl.org/ | Perl]] is a highly capable, feature-rich programming language with over 25 years of development. These notes follow the path of the [[http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Perl-Randal-L-Schwartz/dp/1449303587 | Learning Perl]] book.

  * First line should be #!/usr/bin/perl or #!/usr/bin/env perl
  * Perl compiles to byte-code before executing
  * Do not use an extension for scripts.
  * To specify a minimum version use "use 5.010;"
  * Semicolons (;) required to separate statements
  * "perl -w" turns on warnings for entire program. For just the current file use "use warnings;"
  * "use diagnostics;" adds explanations to warnings
  * "use strict;" requires variable declaration
  * Comments start with # (no block comments)
  * Parenthesis are optional unless part of syntax.
  * ''@ARGV'' contains arguments, $0 contains program name.
  * ''die''/''warn'' can be used to exit/warn, $! will contain any system error message. Without \n at the end, perl will append line number to error message.

===== Numbers =====

  * All numbers are stored in the same format e.g.-6.5e24, 037 (octal), 0x2a13b (hex), 0b11010 (binary)
  * Underscores for readability are ignored e.g. 0x1377_0B77
  * Arithmetic operators are * / + - % (modulus) %%**%% (exponentiation)
  * Comparison operators are < <= == >= > !=

===== Strings =====

  * To use unicode in source code - "use utf8;"
  * Single-quoted literals '⅚∞☃☠' can contain any character except single-quote (use \') and backslash (use \\).
  * Double-quoted strings can contain control-characters starting with a backslash and are variable interpolated e/g/ "${var}s $var\n".
  * . is for concatenation, x for string repetition.
  * To insert a character by code - chr(0x05d0). To convert a character to its code - ord('א')
  *  String comparison operators are lt, le, eq, ge, gt, and ne

===== Scalar Variables =====

  * Scalars are numbers or strings (or undefined or references), used interchangeably.
  * $calar variables start with $ and a letter or underscore, but can contain letters (including unicode), numbers or underscores.
  * Scalar assignment looks like  $a = 3; or $a .= "suffix"; or $a %%**%%= 3;
  * Recommended to use all lowercase variable names with underscores for word separation e.g. $var_name
  * print takes a single scalar or a list of scalars (separated by commas)
  * When a scalar is interpreted as a boolean, the following are //false// : 0, '0', %%''%%, undefined .
  * !! is a handy shortcut to convert any scalar to 0 or 1 (to represent a boolean)
  * Variables have value ''undef'' before being assigned. ''undef'' acts as a 0 or "" as needed, but will throw a warning if printed.
  * ''defined()'' checks if a variable has been defined. Can also set a variable to ''undef''.

===== Lists and Arrays =====

  * A list is an ordered set of elements (each of which is a scalar value), starting with position 0.
  * @rrays are variables that store a list (separate namespace from scalar variables). @x refers to entire array x.
  * Undefined arrays start out as ''()'', the empty list and not ''undef''.
  * To access an element of an array - ''$myarr[0]'' - ''undef'' if never set.
  * Index of last element is in ''$#arr''
  * Negative array indices wrap around (only once) so -1 refers to last element.
  * Literal lists - ''('abc','def')'' or ''(1..6)'' (integers 1 to 6) or ''qw(abc def)'' or ''qw#abc def#'' (quoted by whitespace).
  * Can assign list values to variables e.g. <code perl>($fred, $barney, $dino) = ("flintstone", "rubble", undef);
($fred, $barney) = ($barney, $fred); # swap those values</code>
  * ''push'' adds element(s) to **end** of array. ''pop'' removes a single element and returns it.
  * ''unshift'' adds element(s) to **start** of array. ''shift'' removes a single element and returns it.
  * ''splice'' removes elements from middle of array, returns them and optionally replaces them <code perl>splice @arr, start, len, @newelems</code>
  * ''sort'' and ''reverse'' functions return the modified list (can be saved to original array variable).
  * Expressions parsed in either a scalar context or a list context. Scalars are promoted to single-element lists in list context. 
  * List functions may return different scalars - array variables return number of elements. The ''scalar'' function forces a scalar context e.g. for print function.

===== Hashes =====

  * A hash is a list indexed by a string (key) - a collection of key-value pairs. ''%hash'' has its own namespace.
  * Uses scalable, efficient algorithms. Used to be called associative arrays.
  * ''$hash{$some_key}'' to access a value (curly-braces instead of square braces).
  * Assigning a hash to an array unwinds (flattens) it. 
  * To initialize a hash :<code perl>%some_hash = ('a', 1, 'b', 2, 'c', 3);
%some_hash = ( 'a' => 1, 'b'=>2, 'c'=>3,);</code>
  * When using an arrow (a fat-comma), simple keys don't have to be quoted (barewords) .
===== Control Structures =====

  * if-elsif-else <code perl>if ($a == $b) {
  a = 0;
} elsif ($a > $b) {
  a = 1;
} else {
  a = -1;
}</code>
  * while loop <code perl>$count=0;
while ($count < 10) {
    $count += 2;
}</code>
  * foreach loop <code perl>foreach my $rock (@rocks) {
  # modifications to $rock modify the list element
  # $_ is used if loop variable is omitted
}</code>

===== Input/Output =====

  * Read a line of input - ''$line = <STDIN>;''
  * ''chomp'' removes a newline e.g. ''chomp($line=<STDIN>);''
  * Assigning <STDIN> to a list reads all input up till EOF e.g. <code perl> chomp(@lines = <STDIN>);</code>
  * Loop over input ($_ can only be used in this specific case) <code perl>while (<STDIN>) {
    print "I saw $_";
}</code>
  * ''foreach'' can also be used but uses more memory since it reads all input into memory first.
  * ''<>'' iterates over all files in @ARGV (or STDIN if no args) like e.g. cat/sed/awk. <code perl>while (<>) {
    chomp;
    print LOGFILE "It was $_ that I saw!\n";
}</code>
  * ''print'' takes list of items and sends all to STDOUT (unseparated). ''print @array;'' vs ''print "@array";'' <code perl>print <>;          # source code for 'cat'
print sort <>;     # source code for 'sort'</code>
  * C-like printf function %g for number auto-format,%10s, %-10d etc.<code perl>my @items = qw( wilma dino pebbles );
my $format = "The items are:\n" . ("%10s\n" x @items);
printf $format, @items;
printf "The items are:\n".("%10s\n" x @items), @items;
</code>
  * Filehandles can be barewords (upper-cased) or variables. Special filehandles are : STDIN, STDOUT, STDERR, DATA, ARGV, and ARGVOUT .<code perl>open CONFIG, '<dino';  # < is optional
open BEDROCK, '>fred' || die "Cannot open fred: $!";
open LOG, '>>:encoding(UTF-8)','logfile'; # for perl >= 5.6
open my $bedrock, '>:crlf', $file_name; # DOS-formatted output
binmode STDOUT, ':encoding(UTF-8)';</code>
  * ''select'' can be used to change default output filehandle. ''$| = 1;'' unbuffers currently selected output.
===== User Subroutines =====

  * Subroutines are in their own namespace and are typically called using ''&mysub'' (sometimes the ampersand can be omitted).
  * Subroutines can be defined anywhere e.g. <code perl> sub mysub {
  my($m, $n) = @_
  $m + $n;
} </code>
  * The value of the last expression evaluated is returned. But ''return $a;'' can be used to return immediately.
  * A list can be returned if the subroutine is called in a list context (''wantarray'' can be used to detect list or scalar context).
  * Arguments are in the list @_ . If ''&mysub;'' is used, the parent's argument list is inherited.
  * Lexical scoped variables can be used in any block by prefixing with ''my''.
  * In Perl 5.10 and up ''state $x;'' can be used to declare a private variable that keep state between calls.
  * Ampersand is optional if subroutine has previously been declared or if parenthesis are used. Ampersand is not optional if built-in subroutine is being overridden.
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