Scalar Variables

Types of Scalars

A scalar can be an integer, floating point, a string or a reference to another variable/object, such as, $a = 2; # integer $b1 = 0.55; # floating point # $cheese is a reference to the array @munster $cheese = \@munster;

Note: A pound sign, "#", is a comment character in Perl - everything to the end of the line is ignored by the interpreter.

Strings

A string is a type of scalar. They can be created by an assignment you write or from the return of a function, such as: $lizard = 'some string'; $bilge = "The amount of bilge we got is $var\n"; # &get_name() is a function call $name = &get_name();

The difference between single quotes, ' ', and double quotes, " ", for string variables is that the single quote take strings literally and double quotes will perform interpolation, that is, the value of $var, above, will be inserted into the string variable $bilge along with the code for a new line "\n". This is similar to how the UNIX shell works.

For example:

$var = 4; print 'var = $var', "\n"; print "var = $var\n"; produces the output: var = $var var = 4

String Literals

Code	Meaning
`\t`	tab
`\n`	newline
`\r`	return
`\f`	form feed
`\v`	vertical tab, whatever that is
`\b`	backspace
`\a`	alarm (bell)
`\e`	escape
`\033`	octal char
`\x1b`	hex char
`\c[`	control char
`\l`	lowercase next char
`\u`	uppercase next char
`\L`	lowercase till \E
`\U`	uppercase till \E
`\E`	end case modification
`\Q`	quote regexp metacharacters till \E

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Last Modified: $Date: 1997/05/02 07:17:49 $