This book uses a unique picturebook format to teach programmers the essentials of PERL 5. On the lefthand page, readers find a text description of the operation being performed; on the right-hand page, they see a snapshot of the code for that operation. The perfect PERL 5 book for programmers who say "Show me the code and help me figure out the rest." Provides recipes and samples of Perl scripts to handle the most commonly needed Web add-ons.

Table of Contents:
1. Simple Perl Data Types and Variables. How Perl Looks. Variable Names. Scalars. Numbers. Octal and Hexadecimal Numbers. Strings. Escape (Control) Characters. Predefined Variables. 2. Perl Operators. Arithmetic Operators. Assignment Operators. Logical (Binary) Operators. Logical Expressions. Relational Operators. Equality Operators. String Operators. Other Operators. Operator Precedence. 3. Perl Programming Basics. Statements. Blocks. Labeled Blocks; Jumping Out of Blocks. If/Else and Unless Blocks. Shortcuts and "Gotchas" for If and Unless Blocks. Logical Loops. Enumerated Loops. Stopping Loops. 4. Arrays. Using Arrays. Collection Arrays. Ordered Arrays. Stack Arrays. Queue Arrays. Lists. Manipulating Lists. Sorting Lists. Slices. Hashes. Manipulating Hashes. 5. Character Manipulation and Matching. Regular Expressions. Using Match Results. Splitting. Metacharacters for Matching. Positional Metacharacters. Replacement Metacharacters. Metacharacters for Sets. Repetition Metacharacters. Modifiers for Matching. Substituting Characters with Regular Expressions. Character Translation. Predefined Variables. 6. String Manipulation and Matching. Manipulating Strings by Position. Manipulating Strings by Substring. Changing Case and Using Quotes. Character Manipulation. 7. Interacting with Users. Getting Input from Users. Continuing to Get Input from Users (1). Continuing to Get Input from Users (2). Warning, Dying, and Exiting. Sending Output to Users: Locally. Basic Format Control Characters. Specifying Widths for Formats in Format Control Strings. Flags for Format Control Strings. Printing to the Here Document. Sending Output to Users: On the Web. Installing a Perl-Created Web Page. 8. Using Files. Using Files. Opening a File. Reporting Input/Output Errors. Reading a File. Writing to a File. Appending to a File. Closing a File. Creating a File. Deleting a File. Random Access. File Test Operators. File Permissions and Attributes. File Sharing. Working with Directories. 9. Using Subroutines. Using Subroutines. Creating a Subroutine. Subroutine Definitions, Declarations, and Invocations. Scoping of Variables. Passing Data to a Subroutine. Returning Data from a Subroutine. Subroutine Control of Execution. Creating and Using Modules. 10. Report Writing. Using Formats for Reports. Defining Formats. Numeric Pictures. Multiline Fields. Filling Fields. Handling Pages. Switching Filehandles and Formats. Predefined File Report Variables. 11. Using DBM Files. DBM Basics. Using a Hash and a DBM. Logging Web Access to a DBM. 12. Dynamic Web Pages. The Counter Subroutine. Including the Counter in a Web Page. Variable Information on a Web Page (1). Variable Information on a Web Page (2). Dynamically Varying Information on a Web Page. Redirection. Site Searching. 13. HTML Forms. Using HTML Forms. HTML Forms Get Method. HTML Forms: Post Method. Converting Hex Numeric Strings to Alphanumeric. Guest Book and Passwords (1):HTML Form. Guest Book and Passwords (2):Editing the Response. Guest Book and Passwords (3):Storing the Data. Guest Book and Passwords (4):Using the Password. 14. More Perl for the Web. Sending Mail with a Perl Script. Cookies. 15. Miscellaneous Perl Variables and Constants. Environment Hash. Constants for the pack Function. Perl Constants and Variables. Glossary. Index.