Perl Cookbook

by Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington, Nathan Christiansen, Tom; Torkington

Book Overview

Find a Perl programmer, and you'll find a copy of Perl Cookbook nearby. Perl Cookbook is a comprehensive collection of problems, solutions, and practical examples for anyone programming in Perl. The book contains hundreds of rigorously reviewed Perl "recipes" and thousands of examples ranging from brief one-liners to complete applications. The second edition of Perl Cookbook has been fully updated for Perl 5.8, with extensive...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596003137
• ISBN13: 9780596003135
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 964 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 7.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Every Perl programmer should have it

In the past, I've had a bad experience with Cookbook-styles. One example would be a "CGI/Perl Cookbook". But this one is nothing like its counterpart.To be able to follow the cookbook, you're expected to have a basic knowledge of Perl, Perl data structures and IO filehandles. The rest is "in order to get there, do like this, because of that" - style. Very easy to follow, very concise and at the same time informative. What you will appreciate the most of this book is, it doesn't just give you a solution, but it also teaches you the solution. The book consists of 20 chapters, each chapter dedicated to a distinct subject, such as Strings, Numbers, Dates and Times, Arrays, Hashes, Pattern Matching, File access, File Contends and so on. Each chapter, consists of smaller sections, called "Receipts". Each receipt is dedicated to a solution of one commonly encountered real-life problem.For example, Receipt 8.6, "Picking a Random Line from a File" introduces the problem , gives a very elegant solution: "rand($.) ", and provides a one page exciting description of the algorithm, followed by references.Although I've been involved in Perl extensively for the last 3 years, I still catch myself skimming through the receipts to compare my solutions to that of the book. Frequently I end up discovering something new and exciting.The book is definitely of value. Any Perl programmer should have it.

Most useful Perl book in existence

This is my favourite Perl book. Read the first two sections of Programming Perl, any section that deals with references, skim the rest, and start browsing the Perl Cookbook. The presentation of the varied problems and their solutions is wonderful and instructive. Most programming professors in college are neither as good at instruction, nor as pragmaticly helpful. If all you want is a book to swipe code from, don't bother; most of the book will be just extra weight. All the free code you want is on the net.Get this book, but get this book because with each problem and solution set is a discussion of why the solution works, other solutions that are possible, and when to look toward a more robust and/or complex answer. Each chapter has ten or twenty pages that are dedicated to the programming bailiwick the chapter explores. The answers are well commented, and syntatic suggar is explained. The writing is not terribly dense, and a good sense of flow is maintained through out the book. This is one of the few technical books I own that I can just sit down and read for hours on end w/o getting bored or loosing steam.I cannot praise this book enough. My copy is dog-eared, looks like it's been through a bad land war in SE Asia, and has tiny yellow post-its with titles marking sections I found particularly interesting or useful. With The Perl Cookbook, Programming Perl, Effective Perl Programming, Advanced Perl Programming, and Mastering Regular Expression (ack.), there are few situations a programmer can't handle. Buy this book, NOW!

If you learn by example, this is the book for you.

I had a roommate in college who could learn programming languages by reading the language specifications. He took Advanced Algebra as an elective and blew the curve for the math majors. Corey went after the theory in everything. Once he understood the theory, he could extrapolate the applications.I'm just the opposite. The theory doesn't mean squat to me until I can see a few examples. Give me enough examples, and I can extrapolate the theory.If you're like me, this book is for you. 733 pages containing 334 examples of how to use Perl to solve virtually any programming problem you can think of. And as you examine the solutions to the various problems, you're introduced to successively more and more advanced Perl programming constructs.In short, outstanding book.

One of the best programming books I have read

I have owned this book for over a year and still use it regularly. While I was learning Perl syntax I found that it served very well when language guides such as "Programming Perl" fell short. When I started using the language I didn't have the syntax totally mastered and came across various little questions and problems. The "Perl Cookbook" addressed both of these by providing succinct solutions to my problems while helping me learn more about Perl syntax.Furthermore, this book exposes you to the various Perl modules available in a more natural way than searching for them in a general language reference like "Perl in a Nutshell". Most recipies in the book present a simple code solution and then refer to a module that provides the same (and often extended) functionality.