Perl programming: fundamentals course

The programming language Perl is designed for writing efficient and readable software, to be used on all possible platforms (UNIX, Linux, MS-Windows, Mac, ...). It is commonly applied for a wide range of tasks such as system administration, application management, web development, network programming, and text manipulation. Perl is praised for its flexibility, versatility, performance, and its ease to automate system tasks.

This course will teach you the base syntax of the Perl 5 language. You will learn how to easily and quickly write simple programs solving complicated problems.

This course is first of all a "workshop": participants will have ample opportunity to practise all the discussed topics.

Schedule

datedur.lang.locationprice 
17 Mar3Leuven 1710 EUR (excl. VAT)
17 Mar3web based 1710 EUR (excl. VAT)
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Intended for

System administrators who want to automate day-to-day tasks, and possibly deploy their scripts on multiple platforms; software developers who are charmed by the compact, readable, and versatile programming possibilities, or by the unexpectedly efficient runtime behaviour of Perl; designers planning to use a Perl module which they found on the internet, and want to understand how that module works.

Background

Participants should have a basic programming experience (see course Programming fundamentals). It is assumed that the participants are sufficiently familiar with either MS-Windows, Unix, or Linux, in order to be able to create files and start up programs.

Main topics

  • Introduction:
  • What is Perl?
  • Why is Perl used?
  • Basic structures in Perl:
  • basic operations (arithmetic and textual)
  • comparisons
  • standard input/output
  • The use of lists (arrays and hashes)
  • Conditions and strings:
  • if ... elsif ... else, unless, ...
  • while, until, for, foreach
  • Manipulation and comparison of text strings
  • pattern matching with regular expressions
  • substitution, extraction, splitting of textual data
  • More advanced topics:
  • the creation and use of subroutines
  • the handling of files (open, read, write)
  • the use of references
  • Perl and the shell: piping, redirecting, calling external programs, and the use of parameters
  • Perl modules: installing them and learn how to use them

Training method

Classroom instruction; theory, examples and exercises.

Duration

3 days.

Course leader

Peter Vanroose.


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