PERL/C2/Variables-in-Perl/English
Title of script: Variables in Perl
Author: Amol
Keywords: Variables in Perl, Video Tutorial, Scalars in Perl
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Slide | Welcome to the spoken tutorial on Variables in Perl. |
Slide:Learning Objectives | In this tutorial, we will learn about
Variables in Perl Comments in Perl |
Slide:System Requirements | I am using Ubuntu Linux12.04 operating system and
Perl 5.14.2 that is, Perl revision 5 version 14 and subversion 2
You can use any text editor of your choice. |
Slide | Variables in Perl:
Variables are used for storing values, like text strings, numbers or arrays. Once a variable is declared, it can be used over and over again in the script. |
Slide | Scalar represents a single value and can store scalars only.
Scalar variables are declared using $ (dollar) symbol. |
Slide | Let us look at Variable Declaration:
A variable can be declared as follows: dollar priority semicolon $priority;
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Slide | And may contains letters, digits, underscores or a combination of above 3. |
Slide | Variables declared with CAPITAL letters have special meaning in Perl.
So avoid declaring variables using Capital letters. |
Switch to the Terminal and type
gedit variables.pl & and press Enter. |
Now Open the Terminal and type
gedit variables.pl &
Now press Enter. |
Point to the filename variables.pl in the Titlebar of gedit. | This will open the variables.pl file in gedit text editor.
dot pl is the default extension of a Perl file. |
Type the following
$priority; and press Enter. |
Type the following in the file;
dollar priority semicolon $priority; and press Enter. |
Highlight $priority; with the cursor | So we have declared the variable priority.
You do not need to declare a variable before using it; you can just use it into your code. |
Type
$priority = 1;
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Now let us assign a numerical value to the variable priority
dollar priority space equal to space one semicolon $priority = 1; and press Enter. |
Type
print “Value of variable is: $priority”; |
Next, type
print space double quote Value of variable is: dollar priority slash n double quote complete semicolon slash n is the new line character |
Save this file as variables.pl at any location of your choice.
I am storing it in my home directory /home/amol. |
Now Save this file as variables.pl at any location.
In my case, it will get saved in /home/amol directory. Now save this file |
Switch to the Terminal and type
chmod 755 variables.pl explain the need of above line and then press Enter. |
Now, let us change the permissions of variables.pl Perl file which we just created.
To do so, on the Terminal type, chmod 755 variables.pl This will provide read, write & execute rights to the file. |
Switch to the Terminal and type
perl -c variables.pl but don't press Enter yet. |
To compile this Perl script, on the Terminal.
Type the following command; perl hyphen c variables dot pl |
Highlight -c using the cursor. | Hyphen c switch compiles the Perl script for any compilation/syntax error. |
Now press Enter | Now press enter
This tells us that there is no syntax error in our script |
Highlight variables.pl syntax OK
perl variables.pl and press Enter. |
Now Let's execute the Perl script by typing
perl variables dot pl and press Enter. |
Point with the cursor to
Value of variable is: 1 |
The output displayed is as highlighted |
Switch back to the Text editor window. | We can also assign a string value to the variable we declared.
Switch back to the Text editor window. |
Highlight 1; with the cursor
Instead of 1 type 'high' |
Instead of dollar priority equal to one;
type dollar priority equal to in single quote high |
Point from right of = to left. | Please note that assignments are evaluated from right to left.
A scalar can hold data of any type, be it a string, a number |
Switch to the Terminal and type
perl -c variables.pl and press Enter. |
Save this file and compile the script once again by typing
now press Enter. |
Type
perl variables.pl and press Enter. |
This tells us that there is no syntax error.
perl variables dot pl and press Enter. |
Point with the cursor to
Value of variable is: high |
The output is as shown |
Switch back to the Text editor window.
Go to the last line and press Enter. Type $priority = “String”; |
Now Switch back to the Text Editor window.
dollar priority in double quote String
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Now let us learn how to declare multiple variables.
To do so open the new file in Text Editor. | |
Switch to the Terminal and type
gedit multivar.pl & and press Enter. |
onTerminal type -
gedit multivar dot pl space & and press Enter.
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Type
$firstVar, $secondVar; and press Enter. |
Now will type -
dollar firstVar comma dollar secondVar semicolon and press Enter. |
Type
$firstVar = $secondVar; and press Enter. |
To copy the value of variable dollar firstVar to dollar secondVar, type -
dollar firstVar space equal to space dollar secondVar semicolon and press Enter. |
Switch to slide
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All mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, can be done on these variables
Let us see how we can achieve this using Perl. |
$firstVar = $secondVar =10;
Press Enter. |
Switch to text editor and now Let us assign the value 10 to both these variables by typing dollar firstVar equal to dollar secondVar equal to ten semicolon.
And Press Enter. |
Type
print “firstVar: $firstVar and secondVar: $secondVar”; and press Enter. |
Now To print the values, type
print double quote firstVar: dollar firstVar and secondVar: dollar secondVar slash n double quote complete semicolon press Enter. Now save this file. |
Type
$addition = $firstVar + $secondVar; Press Enter. |
Now let us add the values in the two variables.
For this type dollar addition space equal to space dollar firstVar plus space dollar secondVar semicolon and Press Enter. |
Highlight the variable addition with the cursor | Notice, we haven't declared the variable addition. |
Type
print “Addition: $addition”; |
Once again to print the value of the addition, type
print double quote Addition is dollar addition slash n double quote complete semicolon Save this file |
Switch to the Terminal and type
perl -c variables.pl and press Enter. |
To compile this file again on terminal type
perl hyphen c multivar dot pl there is no syntax error so we can execute the script by typing |
Type
perl multivar.pl and press Enter. |
perl multivar dot pl
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Point with the cursor to the output | This will produce an output as highlighted |
Pause the video recording here
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Switch to gedit | Similarly, try subtraction, multiplication and division.
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Close this file in gedit | Now Let us save this file and close it. |
Show the output in the terminal | Now compile the file by typing
perl hyphen c multivar dot pl There is no syntax error so we can execute the script as \ perl multivar dot pl
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Summary | This brings us to the end of this tutorial.
In this tutorial we have learnt, To Declare and Use scalar variables in Perl
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Assignment | Assignment
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About the Project | Watch the video available at the following link
It summarises the Spoken Tutorial project If you do not have good bandwidth, you can download and watch it |
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Conducts workshops using spoken tutorials Gives certificates to those who pass an online test For more details, please write to contact at spoken tutorial dot org |
Acknowledgment | Spoken Tutorial Project is a part of the Talk to a
Teacher project It is supported by the National Mission on Education through ICT, MHRD, Government of India More information on this Mission is available at the following link. |
Hope you enjoyed this Perl tutorial. This is Amol Brahmankar signing off.
Thanks for joining. |