Question

I am writing a report on the language Perl and need help with listing its basic features.

This includes:

Paradigm

Data Types

Control Flow

Subprograms

Object-orientation

Any basic information you can give you would help in writing this paper.

Answer 1

Perl Language :

• Perl stands for Practical Extraction and Report Language.
• Mainly for text processing.
• It is a programming language developed by Larry Wall.
• It is cross platform.
• It is open source.
• It is an interpreted language.
• File extension is .pl or .PL
• For commenting # is used.
• Each statement is terminated by a semicolon.

Paradigm :

• Perl supports multi paradigm.
• It is an object oriented language.
• It is a imperative language.
• It is a functional language.

Data Types :

• There are three basic types Scalar, Hashes, Arrays.
• Scalar is a simple variable which are preceded by a dollar sign.They are number, string etc..
• Hashes are sets of key value pairs.They are unordered sets.They use keys to access a value.They are preceded by a percent sign.
• Arrays store different values that belongs to same datatype.
• Numerical literals include Integer, Negative integer, Floating point , Scientific notation, Hexadecimal, octal.
• String literal are enclosed between double or single quotes.

Control Statements :

• if , syntax is if(Expression){statements}
• if-else, syntax is if(Expression){statement for true condition}else{statement for false condition}
• if-elseif-else, if(condition 1){statement block}elseif(condition2){statement block}.........else{statement block}
• while , Label : while(expression){statements} or while(expression){statements} . Label is optional.
• until, Label : until(expression){statements} or until(expression){statements} . Label is optional.
• for , Label : for(initialization;condition;update){statement block} .Label is optional.
• foreach, Label : foreach Variable (Expression){ statements} . Label is optional.

Subprograms :

• Subroutine or function.
• They are a set of instructions which are represented by a name.
• sub keyword is used to define a function.
• Syntax : sub subroutineName{ block of statements } .

Object Orientation :

• Perl is an object oriented language.
• Main terms are object, class, method.
• Object is a reference to a datatype.
• Class contains methods to manipulate methods.
• Method means functions.
• To create a class , we need to create a package using keyword package .
• Syntax : package Name;