PERL/C3/Exception-and-error-handling-in-PERL/English-timed

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Time
Narration
00:01 Welcome to the Spoken Tutorial on Exception and error handling in PERL.
00:06 In this tutorial, we will learn to:
  • Catch errors and
  • Handle exceptions.
00:12 For this tutorial, I am using:
  • Ubuntu Linux 12.04 operating system
  • Perl 5.14.2 and the
  • gedit Text Editor.
00:23 You can use any text editor of your choice.
00:27 To follow this tutorial, you should have working knowledge of Perl programming.
00:32 If not, then go through the relevant Perl spoken tutorials on the spoken tutorial website.
00:39 When an error occurs, Exception handling deviates the execution of a program from the normal execution path.
00:47 Error handling helps to recover the program, without terminating the application.
00:53 We can identify and trap an error in a number of ways. We will see few commonly used methods in Perl.
01:01 The warn function only raises a warning message without taking further action.
01:07 The die function immediately terminates the execution and displays the error message.
01:13 Let us understand the die function using a sample program which I have already saved.
01:20 Go to the terminal and type: gedit die dot pl ampersand and press Enter.
01:29 This is the code in 'die.pl' file. Let us understand the code now.
01:35 Here, we have defined a function divide which takes two input parameters

i.e dollar numerator and dollar denominator.

01:46 At the rate underscore (@_) is a special variable used to pass the parameter list to the function.
01:53 If the denominator is zero, the die function will quit the script.
01:57 It will also display the error message for the user to read. Else, it will print the output.
02:05 These are the function call statements.
02:08 The first two times, the function is executed because the second parameter is not zero.
02:15 The third time, the denominator value is zero, so the die function is executed.
02:23 The last divide function will not be executed as the die function quits the script.
02:29 Press Ctrl + S to save the program.
02:32 Let us execute the program.
02:35 Switch back to the terminal and type: perl die dot pl and press Enter.
02:43 The output is displayed as shown here.

"Can't divide by zero!"

02:49 This is the error message we have given in the program in the die statement.
02:54 Next, we will see how to use eval function in error handling.
03:00 eval function is used for handling run-time errors or exceptions.
03:06 For example, built-in errors such as out of memory, divide by zero or user defined errors.
03:14 The general syntax for eval function is shown here.
03:19 The dollar exclamation($!) special variable holds the error message, if any.
03:25 Otherwise, dollar exclamation( $!) holds an empty string. That means it is evaluated as false.
03:33 Let us understand the eval function using a sample program.

Go to the terminal.

03:40 Type: gedit eval dot pl ampersand and press Enter.
03:47 In the eval dot pl file, type the following code as displayed on the screen.

Let me explain the code now.

03:54 Here, in our example,open FILE invokes the die statement, if it has trouble in opening a file “test.dat”.
04:05 Perl gives the system error message from the last eval block to the variable dollar exclamation( $!).
04:13 Press Ctrl + S to save the file.
04:17 Switch back to the terminal and type: perl eval dot pl and press Enter.
04:25 The system error message is displayed as shown here.
04:30 Let us see another example. This time, we will see an error message returned from eval function using '$@' (dollar at the rate).
04:40 Let us switch back to the eval dot pl file.
04:44 Type the code as shown on the screen.
04:48 We are passing $total, $count as input parameters to the function average.
04:56 We have a possibility of getting an error if the count is zero.
05:00 Here, that is handled with the die statement.
05:04 The error message returned from eval is displayed using $@ ( dollar at the rate).
05:11 If not, it will print the Average value.
05:15 Press Ctrl +S to save the file. Let us execute the program.
05:22 Switch back to the terminal and type: perl eval.pl and press Enter.
05:31 The output is as shown here.
05:35 This brings us to the end of this tutorial. Let us summarize.
05:41 In this tutorial, we have learnt how to:
  • Catch errors and
  • Handle exceptions.
05:47 As an assignment do the following.

On your Linux machine, create a file 'emp.txt' with 5 employee names.

05:57 Change permission of 'emp.txt' to READ only.
06:02 Note: Go through the relevant Linux spoken tutorials on the spoken tutorial website for change permission option.
06:10 Write a Perl program to open the 'emp.txt' file in WRITE mode and add few employee names to it.
06:19 Using "eval", print appropriate error message if open/write operation fails.
06:26 The video at the following link summarizes the Spoken Tutorial project. Please download and watch it.
06:33 The Spoken Tutorial Project team:
  • conducts workshops using spoken tutorials and
  • gives certificates on passing online tests.
06:42 For more details, please write to us.
06:46 Spoken Tutorial project is funded by NMEICT, MHRD, Government of India.
06:53 More information on this mission is available at this link.
06:58 This is Nirmala Venkat from IIT Bombay, signing off. Thanks for watching.

Contributors and Content Editors

PoojaMoolya, Sandhya.np14