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a0d0e21e LW |
1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
cb1a09d0 | 3 | perldata - Perl data types |
a0d0e21e LW |
4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
6 | ||
7 | =head2 Variable names | |
8 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
9 | Perl has three built-in data types: scalars, arrays of scalars, and |
10 | associative arrays of scalars, known as "hashes". Normal arrays | |
19799a22 | 11 | are ordered lists of scalars indexed by number, starting with 0 and with |
d55a8828 | 12 | negative subscripts counting from the end. Hashes are unordered |
19799a22 | 13 | collections of scalar values indexed by their associated string key. |
a0d0e21e | 14 | |
d55a8828 | 15 | Values are usually referred to by name, or through a named reference. |
b88cefa9 | 16 | The first character of the name tells you to what sort of data |
17 | structure it refers. The rest of the name tells you the particular | |
d55a8828 TC |
18 | value to which it refers. Usually this name is a single I<identifier>, |
19 | that is, a string beginning with a letter or underscore, and | |
20 | containing letters, underscores, and digits. In some cases, it may | |
21 | be a chain of identifiers, separated by C<::> (or by the slightly | |
22 | archaic C<'>); all but the last are interpreted as names of packages, | |
23 | to locate the namespace in which to look up the final identifier | |
24 | (see L<perlmod/Packages> for details). It's possible to substitute | |
25 | for a simple identifier, an expression that produces a reference | |
26 | to the value at runtime. This is described in more detail below | |
27 | and in L<perlref>. | |
28 | ||
29 | Perl also has its own built-in variables whose names don't follow | |
30 | these rules. They have strange names so they don't accidentally | |
31 | collide with one of your normal variables. Strings that match | |
32 | parenthesized parts of a regular expression are saved under names | |
33 | containing only digits after the C<$> (see L<perlop> and L<perlre>). | |
34 | In addition, several special variables that provide windows into | |
35 | the inner working of Perl have names containing punctuation characters | |
36 | and control characters. These are documented in L<perlvar>. | |
37 | ||
38 | Scalar values are always named with '$', even when referring to a | |
39 | scalar that is part of an array or a hash. The '$' symbol works | |
40 | semantically like the English word "the" in that it indicates a | |
41 | single value is expected. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
42 | |
43 | $days # the simple scalar value "days" | |
44 | $days[28] # the 29th element of array @days | |
45 | $days{'Feb'} # the 'Feb' value from hash %days | |
46 | $#days # the last index of array @days | |
47 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
48 | Entire arrays (and slices of arrays and hashes) are denoted by '@', |
49 | which works much like the word "these" or "those" does in English, | |
50 | in that it indicates multiple values are expected. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
51 | |
52 | @days # ($days[0], $days[1],... $days[n]) | |
d55a8828 | 53 | @days[3,4,5] # same as ($days[3],$days[4],$days[5]) |
a0d0e21e LW |
54 | @days{'a','c'} # same as ($days{'a'},$days{'c'}) |
55 | ||
d55a8828 | 56 | Entire hashes are denoted by '%': |
a0d0e21e LW |
57 | |
58 | %days # (key1, val1, key2, val2 ...) | |
59 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
60 | In addition, subroutines are named with an initial '&', though this |
61 | is optional when unambiguous, just as the word "do" is often redundant | |
62 | in English. Symbol table entries can be named with an initial '*', | |
63 | but you don't really care about that yet (if ever :-). | |
64 | ||
65 | Every variable type has its own namespace, as do several | |
66 | non-variable identifiers. This means that you can, without fear | |
67 | of conflict, use the same name for a scalar variable, an array, or | |
68 | a hash--or, for that matter, for a filehandle, a directory handle, a | |
69 | subroutine name, a format name, or a label. This means that $foo | |
70 | and @foo are two different variables. It also means that C<$foo[1]> | |
71 | is a part of @foo, not a part of $foo. This may seem a bit weird, | |
72 | but that's okay, because it is weird. | |
73 | ||
74 | Because variable references always start with '$', '@', or '%', the | |
75 | "reserved" words aren't in fact reserved with respect to variable | |
76 | names. They I<are> reserved with respect to labels and filehandles, | |
77 | however, which don't have an initial special character. You can't | |
78 | have a filehandle named "log", for instance. Hint: you could say | |
79 | C<open(LOG,'logfile')> rather than C<open(log,'logfile')>. Using | |
80 | uppercase filehandles also improves readability and protects you | |
81 | from conflict with future reserved words. Case I<is> significant--"FOO", | |
82 | "Foo", and "foo" are all different names. Names that start with a | |
83 | letter or underscore may also contain digits and underscores. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
84 | |
85 | It is possible to replace such an alphanumeric name with an expression | |
d55a8828 | 86 | that returns a reference to the appropriate type. For a description |
a0d0e21e LW |
87 | of this, see L<perlref>. |
88 | ||
5f05dabc | 89 | Names that start with a digit may contain only more digits. Names |
9539f610 RGS |
90 | that do not start with a letter, underscore, digit or a caret (i.e. |
91 | a control character) are limited to one character, e.g., C<$%> or | |
92 | C<$$>. (Most of these one character names have a predefined | |
93 | significance to Perl. For instance, C<$$> is the current process | |
94 | id.) | |
a0d0e21e LW |
95 | |
96 | =head2 Context | |
97 | ||
98 | The interpretation of operations and values in Perl sometimes depends | |
99 | on the requirements of the context around the operation or value. | |
d55a8828 | 100 | There are two major contexts: list and scalar. Certain operations |
a0d0e21e | 101 | return list values in contexts wanting a list, and scalar values |
d55a8828 TC |
102 | otherwise. If this is true of an operation it will be mentioned in |
103 | the documentation for that operation. In other words, Perl overloads | |
a0d0e21e | 104 | certain operations based on whether the expected return value is |
d55a8828 TC |
105 | singular or plural. Some words in English work this way, like "fish" |
106 | and "sheep". | |
a0d0e21e LW |
107 | |
108 | In a reciprocal fashion, an operation provides either a scalar or a | |
109 | list context to each of its arguments. For example, if you say | |
110 | ||
111 | int( <STDIN> ) | |
112 | ||
c47ff5f1 | 113 | the integer operation provides scalar context for the <> |
a0d0e21e LW |
114 | operator, which responds by reading one line from STDIN and passing it |
115 | back to the integer operation, which will then find the integer value | |
116 | of that line and return that. If, on the other hand, you say | |
117 | ||
118 | sort( <STDIN> ) | |
119 | ||
c47ff5f1 | 120 | then the sort operation provides list context for <>, which |
a0d0e21e LW |
121 | will proceed to read every line available up to the end of file, and |
122 | pass that list of lines back to the sort routine, which will then | |
123 | sort those lines and return them as a list to whatever the context | |
124 | of the sort was. | |
125 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
126 | Assignment is a little bit special in that it uses its left argument |
127 | to determine the context for the right argument. Assignment to a | |
128 | scalar evaluates the right-hand side in scalar context, while | |
129 | assignment to an array or hash evaluates the righthand side in list | |
130 | context. Assignment to a list (or slice, which is just a list | |
131 | anyway) also evaluates the righthand side in list context. | |
132 | ||
9f1b1f2d GS |
133 | When you use the C<use warnings> pragma or Perl's B<-w> command-line |
134 | option, you may see warnings | |
d55a8828 TC |
135 | about useless uses of constants or functions in "void context". |
136 | Void context just means the value has been discarded, such as a | |
137 | statement containing only C<"fred";> or C<getpwuid(0);>. It still | |
138 | counts as scalar context for functions that care whether or not | |
139 | they're being called in list context. | |
140 | ||
141 | User-defined subroutines may choose to care whether they are being | |
142 | called in a void, scalar, or list context. Most subroutines do not | |
143 | need to bother, though. That's because both scalars and lists are | |
144 | automatically interpolated into lists. See L<perlfunc/wantarray> | |
145 | for how you would dynamically discern your function's calling | |
146 | context. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
147 | |
148 | =head2 Scalar values | |
149 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
150 | All data in Perl is a scalar, an array of scalars, or a hash of |
151 | scalars. A scalar may contain one single value in any of three | |
152 | different flavors: a number, a string, or a reference. In general, | |
153 | conversion from one form to another is transparent. Although a | |
154 | scalar may not directly hold multiple values, it may contain a | |
155 | reference to an array or hash which in turn contains multiple values. | |
156 | ||
157 | Scalars aren't necessarily one thing or another. There's no place | |
158 | to declare a scalar variable to be of type "string", type "number", | |
159 | type "reference", or anything else. Because of the automatic | |
160 | conversion of scalars, operations that return scalars don't need | |
161 | to care (and in fact, cannot care) whether their caller is looking | |
162 | for a string, a number, or a reference. Perl is a contextually | |
163 | polymorphic language whose scalars can be strings, numbers, or | |
164 | references (which includes objects). Although strings and numbers | |
165 | are considered pretty much the same thing for nearly all purposes, | |
166 | references are strongly-typed, uncastable pointers with builtin | |
167 | reference-counting and destructor invocation. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
168 | |
169 | A scalar value is interpreted as TRUE in the Boolean sense if it is not | |
19799a22 | 170 | the null string or the number 0 (or its string equivalent, "0"). The |
d55a8828 TC |
171 | Boolean context is just a special kind of scalar context where no |
172 | conversion to a string or a number is ever performed. | |
173 | ||
174 | There are actually two varieties of null strings (sometimes referred | |
175 | to as "empty" strings), a defined one and an undefined one. The | |
176 | defined version is just a string of length zero, such as C<"">. | |
177 | The undefined version is the value that indicates that there is | |
178 | no real value for something, such as when there was an error, or | |
179 | at end of file, or when you refer to an uninitialized variable or | |
180 | element of an array or hash. Although in early versions of Perl, | |
181 | an undefined scalar could become defined when first used in a | |
182 | place expecting a defined value, this no longer happens except for | |
183 | rare cases of autovivification as explained in L<perlref>. You can | |
184 | use the defined() operator to determine whether a scalar value is | |
185 | defined (this has no meaning on arrays or hashes), and the undef() | |
186 | operator to produce an undefined value. | |
187 | ||
188 | To find out whether a given string is a valid non-zero number, it's | |
189 | sometimes enough to test it against both numeric 0 and also lexical | |
190 | "0" (although this will cause B<-w> noises). That's because strings | |
191 | that aren't numbers count as 0, just as they do in B<awk>: | |
4633a7c4 LW |
192 | |
193 | if ($str == 0 && $str ne "0") { | |
194 | warn "That doesn't look like a number"; | |
54310121 | 195 | } |
4633a7c4 | 196 | |
d55a8828 TC |
197 | That method may be best because otherwise you won't treat IEEE |
198 | notations like C<NaN> or C<Infinity> properly. At other times, you | |
199 | might prefer to determine whether string data can be used numerically | |
200 | by calling the POSIX::strtod() function or by inspecting your string | |
201 | with a regular expression (as documented in L<perlre>). | |
cb1a09d0 AD |
202 | |
203 | warn "has nondigits" if /\D/; | |
5a964f20 TC |
204 | warn "not a natural number" unless /^\d+$/; # rejects -3 |
205 | warn "not an integer" unless /^-?\d+$/; # rejects +3 | |
206 | warn "not an integer" unless /^[+-]?\d+$/; | |
207 | warn "not a decimal number" unless /^-?\d+\.?\d*$/; # rejects .2 | |
208 | warn "not a decimal number" unless /^-?(?:\d+(?:\.\d*)?|\.\d+)$/; | |
54310121 | 209 | warn "not a C float" |
cb1a09d0 AD |
210 | unless /^([+-]?)(?=\d|\.\d)\d*(\.\d*)?([Ee]([+-]?\d+))?$/; |
211 | ||
d55a8828 | 212 | The length of an array is a scalar value. You may find the length |
fc518ee5 JA |
213 | of array @days by evaluating C<$#days>, as in B<csh>. However, this |
214 | isn't the length of the array; it's the subscript of the last element, | |
215 | which is a different value since there is ordinarily a 0th element. | |
d55a8828 TC |
216 | Assigning to C<$#days> actually changes the length of the array. |
217 | Shortening an array this way destroys intervening values. Lengthening | |
218 | an array that was previously shortened does not recover values | |
219 | that were in those elements. (It used to do so in Perl 4, but we | |
220 | had to break this to make sure destructors were called when expected.) | |
221 | ||
210b36aa | 222 | You can also gain some minuscule measure of efficiency by pre-extending |
d55a8828 TC |
223 | an array that is going to get big. You can also extend an array |
224 | by assigning to an element that is off the end of the array. You | |
19799a22 | 225 | can truncate an array down to nothing by assigning the null list |
d55a8828 | 226 | () to it. The following are equivalent: |
a0d0e21e | 227 | |
84f709e7 | 228 | @whatever = (); |
3e3baf6d | 229 | $#whatever = -1; |
a0d0e21e | 230 | |
d55a8828 TC |
231 | If you evaluate an array in scalar context, it returns the length |
232 | of the array. (Note that this is not true of lists, which return | |
233 | the last value, like the C comma operator, nor of built-in functions, | |
234 | which return whatever they feel like returning.) The following is | |
235 | always true: | |
a0d0e21e | 236 | |
84f709e7 JH |
237 | scalar(@whatever) == $#whatever - $[ + 1; |
238 | ||
239 | Version 5 of Perl changed the semantics of C<$[>: files that don't set | |
240 | the value of C<$[> no longer need to worry about whether another | |
241 | file changed its value. (In other words, use of C<$[> is deprecated.) | |
242 | So in general you can assume that | |
243 | ||
a0d0e21e LW |
244 | scalar(@whatever) == $#whatever + 1; |
245 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
246 | Some programmers choose to use an explicit conversion so as to |
247 | leave nothing to doubt: | |
4633a7c4 LW |
248 | |
249 | $element_count = scalar(@whatever); | |
250 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
251 | If you evaluate a hash in scalar context, it returns false if the |
252 | hash is empty. If there are any key/value pairs, it returns true; | |
253 | more precisely, the value returned is a string consisting of the | |
254 | number of used buckets and the number of allocated buckets, separated | |
255 | by a slash. This is pretty much useful only to find out whether | |
256 | Perl's internal hashing algorithm is performing poorly on your data | |
257 | set. For example, you stick 10,000 things in a hash, but evaluating | |
258 | %HASH in scalar context reveals C<"1/16">, which means only one out | |
259 | of sixteen buckets has been touched, and presumably contains all | |
260 | 10,000 of your items. This isn't supposed to happen. | |
a0d0e21e | 261 | |
5a964f20 | 262 | You can preallocate space for a hash by assigning to the keys() function. |
65841adf | 263 | This rounds up the allocated buckets to the next power of two: |
5a964f20 TC |
264 | |
265 | keys(%users) = 1000; # allocate 1024 buckets | |
266 | ||
a0d0e21e LW |
267 | =head2 Scalar value constructors |
268 | ||
d55a8828 | 269 | Numeric literals are specified in any of the following floating point or |
a0d0e21e LW |
270 | integer formats: |
271 | ||
a0d0e21e LW |
272 | 12345 |
273 | 12345.67 | |
d55a8828 | 274 | .23E-10 # a very small number |
928753ea | 275 | 3.14_15_92 # a very important number |
1d277562 | 276 | 4_294_967_296 # underscore for legibility |
d55a8828 | 277 | 0xff # hex |
928753ea | 278 | 0xdead_beef # more hex |
d55a8828 TC |
279 | 0377 # octal |
280 | 0b011011 # binary | |
a0d0e21e | 281 | |
d4ced10d JH |
282 | You are allowed to use underscores (underbars) in numeric literals |
283 | between digits for legibility. You could, for example, group binary | |
284 | digits by threes (as for a Unix-style mode argument such as 0b110_100_100) | |
285 | or by fours (to represent nibbles, as in 0b1010_0110) or in other groups. | |
1d277562 | 286 | |
55497cff | 287 | String literals are usually delimited by either single or double |
d55a8828 TC |
288 | quotes. They work much like quotes in the standard Unix shells: |
289 | double-quoted string literals are subject to backslash and variable | |
19799a22 GS |
290 | substitution; single-quoted strings are not (except for C<\'> and |
291 | C<\\>). The usual C-style backslash rules apply for making | |
d55a8828 | 292 | characters such as newline, tab, etc., as well as some more exotic |
4a4eefd0 | 293 | forms. See L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators"> for a list. |
d55a8828 TC |
294 | |
295 | Hexadecimal, octal, or binary, representations in string literals | |
296 | (e.g. '0xff') are not automatically converted to their integer | |
297 | representation. The hex() and oct() functions make these conversions | |
298 | for you. See L<perlfunc/hex> and L<perlfunc/oct> for more details. | |
68dc0745 | 299 | |
5f05dabc | 300 | You can also embed newlines directly in your strings, i.e., they can end |
a0d0e21e LW |
301 | on a different line than they begin. This is nice, but if you forget |
302 | your trailing quote, the error will not be reported until Perl finds | |
303 | another line containing the quote character, which may be much further | |
304 | on in the script. Variable substitution inside strings is limited to | |
d55a8828 | 305 | scalar variables, arrays, and array or hash slices. (In other words, |
b88cefa9 | 306 | names beginning with $ or @, followed by an optional bracketed |
a0d0e21e | 307 | expression as a subscript.) The following code segment prints out "The |
184e9718 | 308 | price is $Z<>100." |
a0d0e21e | 309 | |
84f709e7 JH |
310 | $Price = '$100'; # not interpreted |
311 | print "The price is $Price.\n"; # interpreted | |
a0d0e21e | 312 | |
d55a8828 | 313 | As in some shells, you can enclose the variable name in braces to |
f1cbbd6e GS |
314 | disambiguate it from following alphanumerics (and underscores). |
315 | You must also do | |
d55a8828 TC |
316 | this when interpolating a variable into a string to separate the |
317 | variable name from a following double-colon or an apostrophe, since | |
318 | these would be otherwise treated as a package separator: | |
319 | ||
84f709e7 | 320 | $who = "Larry"; |
d55a8828 TC |
321 | print PASSWD "${who}::0:0:Superuser:/:/bin/perl\n"; |
322 | print "We use ${who}speak when ${who}'s here.\n"; | |
323 | ||
324 | Without the braces, Perl would have looked for a $whospeak, a | |
325 | C<$who::0>, and a C<$who's> variable. The last two would be the | |
326 | $0 and the $s variables in the (presumably) non-existent package | |
327 | C<who>. | |
328 | ||
329 | In fact, an identifier within such curlies is forced to be a string, | |
330 | as is any simple identifier within a hash subscript. Neither need | |
331 | quoting. Our earlier example, C<$days{'Feb'}> can be written as | |
332 | C<$days{Feb}> and the quotes will be assumed automatically. But | |
333 | anything more complicated in the subscript will be interpreted as | |
334 | an expression. | |
335 | ||
191d61a7 | 336 | A literal of the form C<v1.20.300.4000> is parsed as a string composed |
6b2463a0 JH |
337 | of characters with the specified ordinals. This form, known as |
338 | v-strings, provides an alternative, more readable way to construct | |
339 | strings, rather than use the somewhat less readable interpolation form | |
340 | C<"\x{1}\x{14}\x{12c}\x{fa0}">. This is useful for representing | |
341 | Unicode strings, and for comparing version "numbers" using the string | |
342 | comparison operators, C<cmp>, C<gt>, C<lt> etc. If there are two or | |
343 | more dots in the literal, the leading C<v> may be omitted. | |
b9c62f5b GS |
344 | |
345 | print v9786; # prints UTF-8 encoded SMILEY, "\x{263a}" | |
346 | print v102.111.111; # prints "foo" | |
347 | print 102.111.111; # same | |
348 | ||
349 | Such literals are accepted by both C<require> and C<use> for | |
191d61a7 GS |
350 | doing a version check. The C<$^V> special variable also contains the |
351 | running Perl interpreter's version in this form. See L<perlvar/$^V>. | |
6b2463a0 JH |
352 | Note that using the v-strings for IPv4 addresses is not portable unless |
353 | you also use the inet_aton()/inet_ntoa() routines of the Socket package. | |
191d61a7 | 354 | |
d55a8828 | 355 | The special literals __FILE__, __LINE__, and __PACKAGE__ |
68dc0745 | 356 | represent the current filename, line number, and package name at that |
357 | point in your program. They may be used only as separate tokens; they | |
358 | will not be interpolated into strings. If there is no current package | |
3e92a254 GS |
359 | (due to an empty C<package;> directive), __PACKAGE__ is the undefined |
360 | value. | |
361 | ||
362 | The two control characters ^D and ^Z, and the tokens __END__ and __DATA__ | |
363 | may be used to indicate the logical end of the script before the actual | |
364 | end of file. Any following text is ignored. | |
365 | ||
366 | Text after __DATA__ but may be read via the filehandle C<PACKNAME::DATA>, | |
367 | where C<PACKNAME> is the package that was current when the __DATA__ | |
368 | token was encountered. The filehandle is left open pointing to the | |
369 | contents after __DATA__. It is the program's responsibility to | |
370 | C<close DATA> when it is done reading from it. For compatibility with | |
371 | older scripts written before __DATA__ was introduced, __END__ behaves | |
372 | like __DATA__ in the toplevel script (but not in files loaded with | |
373 | C<require> or C<do>) and leaves the remaining contents of the | |
374 | file accessible via C<main::DATA>. | |
375 | ||
376 | See L<SelfLoader> for more description of __DATA__, and | |
d55a8828 TC |
377 | an example of its use. Note that you cannot read from the DATA |
378 | filehandle in a BEGIN block: the BEGIN block is executed as soon | |
379 | as it is seen (during compilation), at which point the corresponding | |
a00c1fe5 | 380 | __DATA__ (or __END__) token has not yet been seen. |
a0d0e21e | 381 | |
748a9306 | 382 | A word that has no other interpretation in the grammar will |
a0d0e21e LW |
383 | be treated as if it were a quoted string. These are known as |
384 | "barewords". As with filehandles and labels, a bareword that consists | |
385 | entirely of lowercase letters risks conflict with future reserved | |
9f1b1f2d GS |
386 | words, and if you use the C<use warnings> pragma or the B<-w> switch, |
387 | Perl will warn you about any | |
a0d0e21e LW |
388 | such words. Some people may wish to outlaw barewords entirely. If you |
389 | say | |
390 | ||
391 | use strict 'subs'; | |
392 | ||
393 | then any bareword that would NOT be interpreted as a subroutine call | |
394 | produces a compile-time error instead. The restriction lasts to the | |
54310121 | 395 | end of the enclosing block. An inner block may countermand this |
a0d0e21e LW |
396 | by saying C<no strict 'subs'>. |
397 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
398 | Arrays and slices are interpolated into double-quoted strings |
399 | by joining the elements with the delimiter specified in the C<$"> | |
400 | variable (C<$LIST_SEPARATOR> in English), space by default. The | |
401 | following are equivalent: | |
a0d0e21e | 402 | |
84f709e7 | 403 | $temp = join($", @ARGV); |
a0d0e21e LW |
404 | system "echo $temp"; |
405 | ||
406 | system "echo @ARGV"; | |
407 | ||
408 | Within search patterns (which also undergo double-quotish substitution) | |
d55a8828 | 409 | there is an unfortunate ambiguity: Is C</$foo[bar]/> to be interpreted as |
a0d0e21e LW |
410 | C</${foo}[bar]/> (where C<[bar]> is a character class for the regular |
411 | expression) or as C</${foo[bar]}/> (where C<[bar]> is the subscript to array | |
412 | @foo)? If @foo doesn't otherwise exist, then it's obviously a | |
413 | character class. If @foo exists, Perl takes a good guess about C<[bar]>, | |
414 | and is almost always right. If it does guess wrong, or if you're just | |
415 | plain paranoid, you can force the correct interpretation with curly | |
d55a8828 | 416 | braces as above. |
a0d0e21e | 417 | |
7e3b091d | 418 | If you're looking for the information on how to use here-documents, |
210b36aa AMS |
419 | which used to be here, that's been moved to |
420 | L<perlop/Quote and Quote-like Operators>. | |
be16fac9 | 421 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
422 | =head2 List value constructors |
423 | ||
424 | List values are denoted by separating individual values by commas | |
425 | (and enclosing the list in parentheses where precedence requires it): | |
426 | ||
427 | (LIST) | |
428 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
429 | In a context not requiring a list value, the value of what appears |
430 | to be a list literal is simply the value of the final element, as | |
431 | with the C comma operator. For example, | |
a0d0e21e | 432 | |
84f709e7 | 433 | @foo = ('cc', '-E', $bar); |
a0d0e21e | 434 | |
d55a8828 | 435 | assigns the entire list value to array @foo, but |
a0d0e21e | 436 | |
84f709e7 | 437 | $foo = ('cc', '-E', $bar); |
a0d0e21e | 438 | |
d55a8828 TC |
439 | assigns the value of variable $bar to the scalar variable $foo. |
440 | Note that the value of an actual array in scalar context is the | |
441 | length of the array; the following assigns the value 3 to $foo: | |
a0d0e21e | 442 | |
84f709e7 | 443 | @foo = ('cc', '-E', $bar); |
7e3b091d | 444 | $foo = @foo; # $foo gets 3 |
a0d0e21e | 445 | |
54310121 | 446 | You may have an optional comma before the closing parenthesis of a |
a0d0e21e LW |
447 | list literal, so that you can say: |
448 | ||
84f709e7 | 449 | @foo = ( |
7e3b091d DA |
450 | 1, |
451 | 2, | |
452 | 3, | |
a0d0e21e LW |
453 | ); |
454 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
455 | To use a here-document to assign an array, one line per element, |
456 | you might use an approach like this: | |
457 | ||
84f709e7 | 458 | @sauces = <<End_Lines =~ m/(\S.*\S)/g; |
7e3b091d DA |
459 | normal tomato |
460 | spicy tomato | |
461 | green chile | |
462 | pesto | |
463 | white wine | |
d55a8828 TC |
464 | End_Lines |
465 | ||
a0d0e21e | 466 | LISTs do automatic interpolation of sublists. That is, when a LIST is |
d55a8828 | 467 | evaluated, each element of the list is evaluated in list context, and |
a0d0e21e | 468 | the resulting list value is interpolated into LIST just as if each |
5a964f20 | 469 | individual element were a member of LIST. Thus arrays and hashes lose their |
a0d0e21e LW |
470 | identity in a LIST--the list |
471 | ||
5a964f20 | 472 | (@foo,@bar,&SomeSub,%glarch) |
a0d0e21e LW |
473 | |
474 | contains all the elements of @foo followed by all the elements of @bar, | |
5a964f20 | 475 | followed by all the elements returned by the subroutine named SomeSub |
d55a8828 | 476 | called in list context, followed by the key/value pairs of %glarch. |
a0d0e21e LW |
477 | To make a list reference that does I<NOT> interpolate, see L<perlref>. |
478 | ||
19799a22 | 479 | The null list is represented by (). Interpolating it in a list |
a0d0e21e LW |
480 | has no effect. Thus ((),(),()) is equivalent to (). Similarly, |
481 | interpolating an array with no elements is the same as if no | |
482 | array had been interpolated at that point. | |
483 | ||
c2689353 | 484 | This interpolation combines with the facts that the opening |
ab1f959b | 485 | and closing parentheses are optional (except when necessary for |
c2689353 NC |
486 | precedence) and lists may end with an optional comma to mean that |
487 | multiple commas within lists are legal syntax. The list C<1,,3> is a | |
488 | concatenation of two lists, C<1,> and C<3>, the first of which ends | |
489 | with that optional comma. C<1,,3> is C<(1,),(3)> is C<1,3> (And | |
490 | similarly for C<1,,,3> is C<(1,),(,),3> is C<1,3> and so on.) Not that | |
491 | we'd advise you to use this obfuscation. | |
492 | ||
a0d0e21e | 493 | A list value may also be subscripted like a normal array. You must |
54310121 | 494 | put the list in parentheses to avoid ambiguity. For example: |
a0d0e21e LW |
495 | |
496 | # Stat returns list value. | |
84f709e7 | 497 | $time = (stat($file))[8]; |
a0d0e21e | 498 | |
4633a7c4 | 499 | # SYNTAX ERROR HERE. |
84f709e7 | 500 | $time = stat($file)[8]; # OOPS, FORGOT PARENTHESES |
4633a7c4 | 501 | |
a0d0e21e | 502 | # Find a hex digit. |
84f709e7 | 503 | $hexdigit = ('a','b','c','d','e','f')[$digit-10]; |
a0d0e21e LW |
504 | |
505 | # A "reverse comma operator". | |
506 | return (pop(@foo),pop(@foo))[0]; | |
507 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
508 | Lists may be assigned to only when each element of the list |
509 | is itself legal to assign to: | |
a0d0e21e | 510 | |
84f709e7 | 511 | ($a, $b, $c) = (1, 2, 3); |
a0d0e21e | 512 | |
84f709e7 | 513 | ($map{'red'}, $map{'blue'}, $map{'green'}) = (0x00f, 0x0f0, 0xf00); |
a0d0e21e | 514 | |
d55a8828 TC |
515 | An exception to this is that you may assign to C<undef> in a list. |
516 | This is useful for throwing away some of the return values of a | |
517 | function: | |
518 | ||
84f709e7 | 519 | ($dev, $ino, undef, undef, $uid, $gid) = stat($file); |
d55a8828 TC |
520 | |
521 | List assignment in scalar context returns the number of elements | |
4633a7c4 LW |
522 | produced by the expression on the right side of the assignment: |
523 | ||
7e3b091d DA |
524 | $x = (($foo,$bar) = (3,2,1)); # set $x to 3, not 2 |
525 | $x = (($foo,$bar) = f()); # set $x to f()'s return count | |
4633a7c4 | 526 | |
d55a8828 | 527 | This is handy when you want to do a list assignment in a Boolean |
19799a22 | 528 | context, because most list functions return a null list when finished, |
4633a7c4 LW |
529 | which when assigned produces a 0, which is interpreted as FALSE. |
530 | ||
ab1f959b PN |
531 | It's also the source of a useful idiom for executing a function or |
532 | performing an operation in list context and then counting the number of | |
533 | return values, by assigning to an empty list and then using that | |
534 | assignment in scalar context. For example, this code: | |
535 | ||
84f709e7 | 536 | $count = () = $string =~ /\d+/g; |
ab1f959b PN |
537 | |
538 | will place into $count the number of digit groups found in $string. | |
539 | This happens because the pattern match is in list context (since it | |
540 | is being assigned to the empty list), and will therefore return a list | |
541 | of all matching parts of the string. The list assignment in scalar | |
542 | context will translate that into the number of elements (here, the | |
543 | number of times the pattern matched) and assign that to $count. Note | |
544 | that simply using | |
545 | ||
84f709e7 | 546 | $count = $string =~ /\d+/g; |
ab1f959b PN |
547 | |
548 | would not have worked, since a pattern match in scalar context will | |
549 | only return true or false, rather than a count of matches. | |
550 | ||
551 | The final element of a list assignment may be an array or a hash: | |
a0d0e21e | 552 | |
84f709e7 | 553 | ($a, $b, @rest) = split; |
5a964f20 | 554 | my($a, $b, %rest) = @_; |
a0d0e21e | 555 | |
4633a7c4 | 556 | You can actually put an array or hash anywhere in the list, but the first one |
d55a8828 TC |
557 | in the list will soak up all the values, and anything after it will become |
558 | undefined. This may be useful in a my() or local(). | |
a0d0e21e | 559 | |
d55a8828 TC |
560 | A hash can be initialized using a literal list holding pairs of |
561 | items to be interpreted as a key and a value: | |
a0d0e21e LW |
562 | |
563 | # same as map assignment above | |
84f709e7 | 564 | %map = ('red',0x00f,'blue',0x0f0,'green',0xf00); |
a0d0e21e | 565 | |
d55a8828 | 566 | While literal lists and named arrays are often interchangeable, that's |
4633a7c4 LW |
567 | not the case for hashes. Just because you can subscript a list value like |
568 | a normal array does not mean that you can subscript a list value as a | |
569 | hash. Likewise, hashes included as parts of other lists (including | |
570 | parameters lists and return lists from functions) always flatten out into | |
571 | key/value pairs. That's why it's good to use references sometimes. | |
a0d0e21e | 572 | |
c47ff5f1 GS |
573 | It is often more readable to use the C<< => >> operator between key/value |
574 | pairs. The C<< => >> operator is mostly just a more visually distinctive | |
b88cefa9 | 575 | synonym for a comma, but it also arranges for its left-hand operand to be |
5a964f20 | 576 | interpreted as a string--if it's a bareword that would be a legal identifier. |
b88cefa9 | 577 | This makes it nice for initializing hashes: |
a0d0e21e | 578 | |
84f709e7 | 579 | %map = ( |
7e3b091d DA |
580 | red => 0x00f, |
581 | blue => 0x0f0, | |
582 | green => 0xf00, | |
4633a7c4 LW |
583 | ); |
584 | ||
585 | or for initializing hash references to be used as records: | |
586 | ||
84f709e7 | 587 | $rec = { |
7e3b091d DA |
588 | witch => 'Mable the Merciless', |
589 | cat => 'Fluffy the Ferocious', | |
590 | date => '10/31/1776', | |
4633a7c4 LW |
591 | }; |
592 | ||
593 | or for using call-by-named-parameter to complicated functions: | |
594 | ||
84f709e7 | 595 | $field = $query->radio_group( |
7e3b091d | 596 | name => 'group_name', |
4633a7c4 LW |
597 | values => ['eenie','meenie','minie'], |
598 | default => 'meenie', | |
599 | linebreak => 'true', | |
84f709e7 | 600 | labels => \%labels |
4633a7c4 | 601 | ); |
cb1a09d0 AD |
602 | |
603 | Note that just because a hash is initialized in that order doesn't | |
604 | mean that it comes out in that order. See L<perlfunc/sort> for examples | |
605 | of how to arrange for an output ordering. | |
606 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
607 | =head2 Slices |
608 | ||
56d7751a GS |
609 | A common way to access an array or a hash is one scalar element at a |
610 | time. You can also subscript a list to get a single element from it. | |
d55a8828 | 611 | |
7e3b091d DA |
612 | $whoami = $ENV{"USER"}; # one element from the hash |
613 | $parent = $ISA[0]; # one element from the array | |
614 | $dir = (getpwnam("daemon"))[7]; # likewise, but with list | |
d55a8828 TC |
615 | |
616 | A slice accesses several elements of a list, an array, or a hash | |
56d7751a GS |
617 | simultaneously using a list of subscripts. It's more convenient |
618 | than writing out the individual elements as a list of separate | |
d55a8828 TC |
619 | scalar values. |
620 | ||
7e3b091d DA |
621 | ($him, $her) = @folks[0,-1]; # array slice |
622 | @them = @folks[0 .. 3]; # array slice | |
623 | ($who, $home) = @ENV{"USER", "HOME"}; # hash slice | |
624 | ($uid, $dir) = (getpwnam("daemon"))[2,7]; # list slice | |
d55a8828 TC |
625 | |
626 | Since you can assign to a list of variables, you can also assign to | |
627 | an array or hash slice. | |
628 | ||
84f709e7 | 629 | @days[3..5] = qw/Wed Thu Fri/; |
d55a8828 | 630 | @colors{'red','blue','green'} |
7e3b091d | 631 | = (0xff0000, 0x0000ff, 0x00ff00); |
d55a8828 TC |
632 | @folks[0, -1] = @folks[-1, 0]; |
633 | ||
634 | The previous assignments are exactly equivalent to | |
635 | ||
84f709e7 JH |
636 | ($days[3], $days[4], $days[5]) = qw/Wed Thu Fri/; |
637 | ($colors{'red'}, $colors{'blue'}, $colors{'green'}) | |
7e3b091d | 638 | = (0xff0000, 0x0000ff, 0x00ff00); |
84f709e7 | 639 | ($folks[0], $folks[-1]) = ($folks[0], $folks[-1]); |
d55a8828 TC |
640 | |
641 | Since changing a slice changes the original array or hash that it's | |
56d7751a GS |
642 | slicing, a C<foreach> construct will alter some--or even all--of the |
643 | values of the array or hash. | |
d55a8828 TC |
644 | |
645 | foreach (@array[ 4 .. 10 ]) { s/peter/paul/ } | |
646 | ||
647 | foreach (@hash{keys %hash}) { | |
7e3b091d DA |
648 | s/^\s+//; # trim leading whitespace |
649 | s/\s+$//; # trim trailing whitespace | |
650 | s/(\w+)/\u\L$1/g; # "titlecase" words | |
d55a8828 TC |
651 | } |
652 | ||
08cd8952 GS |
653 | A slice of an empty list is still an empty list. Thus: |
654 | ||
84f709e7 JH |
655 | @a = ()[1,0]; # @a has no elements |
656 | @b = (@a)[0,1]; # @b has no elements | |
657 | @c = (0,1)[2,3]; # @c has no elements | |
56d7751a GS |
658 | |
659 | But: | |
660 | ||
84f709e7 JH |
661 | @a = (1)[1,0]; # @a has two elements |
662 | @b = (1,undef)[1,0,2]; # @b has three elements | |
08cd8952 | 663 | |
19799a22 GS |
664 | This makes it easy to write loops that terminate when a null list |
665 | is returned: | |
d55a8828 | 666 | |
84f709e7 | 667 | while ( ($home, $user) = (getpwent)[7,0]) { |
7e3b091d | 668 | printf "%-8s %s\n", $user, $home; |
d55a8828 TC |
669 | } |
670 | ||
671 | As noted earlier in this document, the scalar sense of list assignment | |
672 | is the number of elements on the right-hand side of the assignment. | |
19799a22 | 673 | The null list contains no elements, so when the password file is |
d55a8828 TC |
674 | exhausted, the result is 0, not 2. |
675 | ||
676 | If you're confused about why you use an '@' there on a hash slice | |
677 | instead of a '%', think of it like this. The type of bracket (square | |
678 | or curly) governs whether it's an array or a hash being looked at. | |
679 | On the other hand, the leading symbol ('$' or '@') on the array or | |
680 | hash indicates whether you are getting back a singular value (a | |
681 | scalar) or a plural one (a list). | |
682 | ||
5f05dabc | 683 | =head2 Typeglobs and Filehandles |
cb1a09d0 AD |
684 | |
685 | Perl uses an internal type called a I<typeglob> to hold an entire | |
686 | symbol table entry. The type prefix of a typeglob is a C<*>, because | |
54310121 | 687 | it represents all types. This used to be the preferred way to |
cb1a09d0 | 688 | pass arrays and hashes by reference into a function, but now that |
5a964f20 TC |
689 | we have real references, this is seldom needed. |
690 | ||
691 | The main use of typeglobs in modern Perl is create symbol table aliases. | |
692 | This assignment: | |
693 | ||
694 | *this = *that; | |
695 | ||
696 | makes $this an alias for $that, @this an alias for @that, %this an alias | |
697 | for %that, &this an alias for &that, etc. Much safer is to use a reference. | |
698 | This: | |
5f05dabc | 699 | |
5a964f20 TC |
700 | local *Here::blue = \$There::green; |
701 | ||
702 | temporarily makes $Here::blue an alias for $There::green, but doesn't | |
703 | make @Here::blue an alias for @There::green, or %Here::blue an alias for | |
704 | %There::green, etc. See L<perlmod/"Symbol Tables"> for more examples | |
705 | of this. Strange though this may seem, this is the basis for the whole | |
84f709e7 | 706 | module import/export system. |
5a964f20 | 707 | |
d55a8828 | 708 | Another use for typeglobs is to pass filehandles into a function or |
5a964f20 TC |
709 | to create new filehandles. If you need to use a typeglob to save away |
710 | a filehandle, do it this way: | |
5f05dabc | 711 | |
84f709e7 | 712 | $fh = *STDOUT; |
5f05dabc | 713 | |
714 | or perhaps as a real reference, like this: | |
715 | ||
84f709e7 | 716 | $fh = \*STDOUT; |
5f05dabc | 717 | |
5a964f20 TC |
718 | See L<perlsub> for examples of using these as indirect filehandles |
719 | in functions. | |
720 | ||
721 | Typeglobs are also a way to create a local filehandle using the local() | |
722 | operator. These last until their block is exited, but may be passed back. | |
723 | For example: | |
5f05dabc | 724 | |
725 | sub newopen { | |
7e3b091d DA |
726 | my $path = shift; |
727 | local *FH; # not my! | |
728 | open (FH, $path) or return undef; | |
729 | return *FH; | |
5f05dabc | 730 | } |
84f709e7 | 731 | $fh = newopen('/etc/passwd'); |
5f05dabc | 732 | |
d55a8828 | 733 | Now that we have the C<*foo{THING}> notation, typeglobs aren't used as much |
5a964f20 TC |
734 | for filehandle manipulations, although they're still needed to pass brand |
735 | new file and directory handles into or out of functions. That's because | |
d55a8828 TC |
736 | C<*HANDLE{IO}> only works if HANDLE has already been used as a handle. |
737 | In other words, C<*FH> must be used to create new symbol table entries; | |
738 | C<*foo{THING}> cannot. When in doubt, use C<*FH>. | |
739 | ||
36392fcf GS |
740 | All functions that are capable of creating filehandles (open(), |
741 | opendir(), pipe(), socketpair(), sysopen(), socket(), and accept()) | |
742 | automatically create an anonymous filehandle if the handle passed to | |
743 | them is an uninitialized scalar variable. This allows the constructs | |
744 | such as C<open(my $fh, ...)> and C<open(local $fh,...)> to be used to | |
745 | create filehandles that will conveniently be closed automatically when | |
746 | the scope ends, provided there are no other references to them. This | |
747 | largely eliminates the need for typeglobs when opening filehandles | |
748 | that must be passed around, as in the following example: | |
749 | ||
750 | sub myopen { | |
84f709e7 | 751 | open my $fh, "@_" |
7e3b091d DA |
752 | or die "Can't open '@_': $!"; |
753 | return $fh; | |
36392fcf GS |
754 | } |
755 | ||
756 | { | |
757 | my $f = myopen("</etc/motd"); | |
7e3b091d DA |
758 | print <$f>; |
759 | # $f implicitly closed here | |
36392fcf GS |
760 | } |
761 | ||
d55a8828 TC |
762 | Another way to create anonymous filehandles is with the Symbol |
763 | module or with the IO::Handle module and its ilk. These modules | |
764 | have the advantage of not hiding different types of the same name | |
765 | during the local(). See the bottom of L<perlfunc/open()> for an | |
766 | example. | |
767 | ||
768 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
769 | ||
770 | See L<perlvar> for a description of Perl's built-in variables and | |
771 | a discussion of legal variable names. See L<perlref>, L<perlsub>, | |
772 | and L<perlmod/"Symbol Tables"> for more discussion on typeglobs and | |
773 | the C<*foo{THING}> syntax. |