Introduction to Perl

• Practical Extracting and Reporting Language (Perl)
• Getting Started with Perl
• Scalar Variables
• Numerical Variables
• String Variables
• Retrieving Data from STDIN

Flow Control in Perl

• Boolean Expressions in Perl
• The if Statement
• The while Statement
• The do {} while Statement
• The for Statement
• Loop-Control Commands
• I/O Redirection

Regular Expressions in Perl

• Introduction to Regular Expressions
• Character Classes
• Pattern Matching and Substitution

Arrays in Perl

• Introduction to Perl Arrays
• Accessing Array Elements
• The sort Function
• The foreach Statement
• The push and pop Functions
• The shift and unshift Functions
• The split and join Functions

Hashes in Perl

• Introduction to Perl Hashes
• Adding and Deleting Hash Elements
• The keys Function
• The values Function
• The each Function
• The reverse Function

Subroutines in Perl

• Introduction to Perl Subroutines
• Variable Scope
• References

File Input and Output

• Introduction to File Input and Output
• What Is a Filehandle
• The open Function
• Outputting Data to a File
• Opening Files for Reading
• Determining Information About Files
• The stat and lstat Functions

Environment Variables and Command Line Arguments

• Environment Variables
• Command Line Arguments

Packages and Modules in Perl

• Using Packages in Perl
• BEGIN and END Blocks
• Using Modules in Perl
• The use and require Statements

Object-Oriented Perl

• Introduction to Object-Oriented Perl
• Creating Objects in Perl
• Inheritance

Database Connectivity and Perl

• Introduction to Database Connectivity
• Database Programming with Perl
• Interacting with Databases
• Connecting to Databases
• Structured Query Language
• Quoting Operators

Debugging Perl Programs

• Introduction to Debugging Perl Scripts
• Using the print Command
• Using the .w Switch
• Using the strict Module
• The Perl Debugger
• Writing Bug-Free Perl Code