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352 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
352 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: language
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language: Perl
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filename: learnperl.pl
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contributors:
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- ["Korjavin Ivan", "http://github.com/korjavin"]
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- ["Dan Book", "http://github.com/Grinnz"]
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---
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Perl is a highly capable, feature-rich programming language with over 25 years of development.
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Perl runs on over 100 platforms from portables to mainframes and is suitable for both rapid prototyping and large scale development projects.
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```perl
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# Single line comments start with a number sign.
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#### Strict and warnings
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use strict;
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use warnings;
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# All perl scripts and modules should include these lines. Strict causes
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# compilation to fail in cases like misspelled variable names, and
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# warnings will print warning messages in case of common pitfalls like
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# concatenating to an undefined value.
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#### Perl variable types
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# Variables begin with a sigil, which is a symbol showing the type.
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# A valid variable name starts with a letter or underscore,
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# followed by any number of letters, numbers, or underscores.
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### Perl has three main variable types: $scalar, @array, and %hash.
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## Scalars
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# A scalar represents a single value:
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my $animal = "camel";
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my $answer = 42;
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my $display = "You have $answer ${animal}s.\n";
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# Scalar values can be strings, integers or floating point numbers, and
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# Perl will automatically convert between them as required.
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# Strings in single quotes are literal strings. Strings in double quotes
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# will interpolate variables and escape codes like "\n" for newline.
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## Arrays
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# An array represents a list of values:
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my @animals = ("camel", "llama", "owl");
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my @numbers = (23, 42, 69);
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my @mixed = ("camel", 42, 1.23);
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# Array elements are accessed using square brackets, with a $ to
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# indicate one value will be returned.
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my $second = $animals[1];
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# The size of an array is retrieved by accessing the array in a scalar
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# context, such as assigning it to a scalar variable or using the
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# "scalar" operator.
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my $num_animals = @animals;
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print "Number of numbers: ", scalar(@numbers), "\n";
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# Arrays can also be interpolated into double-quoted strings, and the
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# elements are separated by a space character by default.
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print "We have these numbers: @numbers\n";
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# Be careful when using double quotes for strings containing symbols
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# such as email addresses, as it will be interpreted as a variable.
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my @example = ('secret', 'array');
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my $oops_email = "foo@example.com"; # 'foosecret array.com'
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my $ok_email = 'foo@example.com';
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## Hashes
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# A hash represents a set of key/value pairs:
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my %fruit_color = ("apple", "red", "banana", "yellow");
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# You can use whitespace and the "=>" operator to lay them out more
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# nicely:
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my %fruit_color = (
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apple => "red",
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banana => "yellow",
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);
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# Hash elements are accessed using curly braces, again with the $ sigil.
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my $color = $fruit_color{apple};
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# All of the keys or values that exist in a hash can be accessed using
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# the "keys" and "values" functions.
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my @fruits = keys %fruit_color;
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my @colors = values %fruit_color;
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# Scalars, arrays and hashes are documented more fully in perldata.
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# (perldoc perldata).
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#### References
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# More complex data types can be constructed using references, which
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# allow you to build arrays and hashes within arrays and hashes.
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my $array_ref = \@array;
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my $hash_ref = \%hash;
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my @array_of_arrays = (\@array1, \@array2, \@array3);
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# You can also create anonymous arrays or hashes, returning a reference:
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my $fruits = ["apple", "banana"];
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my $colors = {apple => "red", banana => "yellow"};
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# References can be dereferenced by prefixing the appropriate sigil.
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my @fruits_array = @$fruits;
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my %colors_hash = %$colors;
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# As a shortcut, the arrow operator can be used to dereference and
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# access a single value.
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my $first = $array_ref->[0];
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my $value = $hash_ref->{banana};
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# See perlreftut and perlref for more in-depth documentation on
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# references.
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#### Conditional and looping constructs
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# Perl has most of the usual conditional and looping constructs.
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if ($var) {
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...
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} elsif ($var eq 'bar') {
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...
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} else {
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...
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}
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unless (condition) {
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...
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}
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# This is provided as a more readable version of "if (!condition)"
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# the Perlish post-condition way
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print "Yow!" if $zippy;
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print "We have no bananas" unless $bananas;
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# while
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while (condition) {
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...
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}
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my $max = 5;
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# for loops and iteration
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for my $i (0 .. $max) {
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print "index is $i";
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}
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for my $element (@elements) {
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print $element;
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}
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map {print} @elements;
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# implicitly
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for (@elements) {
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print;
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}
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# iterating through a hash (for and foreach are equivalent)
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foreach my $key (keys %hash) {
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print $key, ': ', $hash{$key}, "\n";
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}
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# the Perlish post-condition way again
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print for @elements;
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# iterating through the keys and values of a referenced hash
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print $hash_ref->{$_} for keys %$hash_ref;
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#### Regular expressions
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# Perl's regular expression support is both broad and deep, and is the
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# subject of lengthy documentation in perlrequick, perlretut, and
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# elsewhere. However, in short:
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# Simple matching
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if (/foo/) { ... } # true if $_ contains "foo"
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if ($x =~ /foo/) { ... } # true if $x contains "foo"
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# Simple substitution
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$x =~ s/foo/bar/; # replaces foo with bar in $x
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$x =~ s/foo/bar/g; # replaces ALL INSTANCES of foo with bar in $x
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#### Files and I/O
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# You can open a file for input or output using the "open()" function.
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# For reading:
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open(my $in, "<", "input.txt") or die "Can't open input.txt: $!";
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# For writing (clears file if it exists):
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open(my $out, ">", "output.txt") or die "Can't open output.txt: $!";
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# For writing (appends to end of file):
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open(my $log, ">>", "my.log") or die "Can't open my.log: $!";
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# You can read from an open filehandle using the "<>" operator. In
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# scalar context it reads a single line from the filehandle, and in list
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# context it reads the whole file in, assigning each line to an element
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# of the list:
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my $line = <$in>;
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my @lines = <$in>;
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# You can iterate through the lines in a file one at a time with a while loop:
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while (my $line = <$in>) {
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print "Found apples\n" if $line =~ m/apples/;
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}
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# You can write to an open filehandle using the standard "print"
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# function.
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print $out @lines;
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print $log $msg, "\n";
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#### Writing subroutines
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# Writing subroutines is easy:
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sub logger {
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my $logmessage = shift;
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open my $logfile, ">>", "my.log" or die "Could not open my.log: $!";
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print $logfile $logmessage;
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}
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# Now we can use the subroutine just as any other built-in function:
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logger("We have a logger subroutine!");
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#### Modules
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# A module is a set of Perl code, usually subroutines, which can be used
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# in other Perl code. It is usually stored in a file with the extension
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# .pm so that Perl can find it.
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package MyModule;
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use strict;
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use warnings;
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sub trim {
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my $string = shift;
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$string =~ s/^\s+//;
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$string =~ s/\s+$//;
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return $string;
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}
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1;
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# From elsewhere:
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use MyModule;
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MyModule::trim($string);
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# The Exporter module can help with making subroutines exportable, so
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# they can be used like this:
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use MyModule 'trim';
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trim($string);
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# Many Perl modules can be downloaded from CPAN (http://www.cpan.org/)
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# and provide a range of features to help you avoid reinventing the
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# wheel. A number of popular modules like Exporter are included with
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# the Perl distribution itself. See perlmod for more details on modules
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# in Perl.
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#### Objects
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# Objects in Perl are just references that know which class (package)
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# they belong to, so that methods (subroutines) called on it can be
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# found there. The bless function is used in constructors (usually new)
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# to set this up. However, you never need to call it yourself if you use
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# a module like Moose or Moo (see below).
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package MyCounter;
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use strict;
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use warnings;
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sub new {
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my $class = shift;
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my $self = {count => 0};
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return bless $self, $class;
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}
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sub count {
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my $self = shift;
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return $self->{count};
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}
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sub increment {
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my $self = shift;
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$self->{count}++;
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}
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1;
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# Methods can be called on a class or object instance with the arrow
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# operator.
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use MyCounter;
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my $counter = MyCounter->new;
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print $counter->count, "\n"; # 0
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$counter->increment;
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print $counter->count, "\n"; # 1
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# The modules Moose and Moo from CPAN can help you set up your object
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# classes. They provide a constructor and simple syntax for declaring
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# attributes. This class can be used equivalently to the one above.
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package MyCounter;
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use Moo; # imports strict and warnings
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has 'count' => (is => 'rwp', default => 0, init_arg => undef);
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sub increment {
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my $self = shift;
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$self->_set_count($self->count + 1);
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}
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1;
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# Object-oriented programming is covered more thoroughly in perlootut,
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# and its low-level implementation in Perl is covered in perlobj.
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```
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#### FAQ
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perlfaq contains questions and answers related to many common tasks, and often provides suggestions for good CPAN modules to use.
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#### Further Reading
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- [perl-tutorial](http://perl-tutorial.org/)
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- [Learn at www.perl.com](http://www.perl.org/learn.html)
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- [perldoc](http://perldoc.perl.org/)
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- and perl built-in : `perldoc perlintro`
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