Effective Perl Programming: Ways to Write Better, More Idiomatic Perl

The Classic Guide to Solving Real-World Problems with Perl—Now Fully Updated for Today’s Best Idioms!   For years, experienced programmers have relied on Effective Perl Programming to discover better ways to solve problems with Perl. Now, in this long-awaited second edition, three renowned Perl programmers bring together today’s best idioms, techniques, and examples: everything you need to write more powerful, fluent, expressive, and succinct code with Perl.   Nearly twice the size of the first edition, Effective Perl Programming, Second Edition, offers everything from rules of thumb to avoid common pitfalls to the latest wisdom for using Perl modules. You won’t just learn the right ways to use Perl: You’ll learn why these approaches work so well.   New coverage in this edition includes   Reorganized and expanded material spanning twelve years of Perl evolution Eight new chapters on CPAN, databases, distributions, files and filehandles, production Perl, testing, Unicode, and warnings Updates for Perl 5.12, the latest version of Perl Systematically updated examples reflecting today’s best idioms   You’ll learn how to work with strings, numbers, lists, arrays, strictures, namespaces, regular expressions, subroutines, references, distributions, inline code, warnings, Perl::Tidy, data munging, Perl one-liners, and a whole lot more. Every technique is organized in the same Items format that helped make the first edition so convenient and popular.

Table of Contents:
Foreword xi Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii About the Authors xix   Introduction 1   Chapter 1: The Basics of Perl 9 Item 1. Find the documentation for Perl and its modules. 9 Item 2. Enable new Perl features when you need them. 12 Item 3. Enable strictures to promote better coding. 14 Item 4. Understand what sigils are telling you. 17 Item 5. Know your variable namespaces. 19 Item 6. Know the difference between string and numeric comparisons. 21 Item 7. Know which values are false and test them accordingly. 23 Item 8. Understand conversions between strings and numbers. 27 Item 9. Know the difference between lists and arrays. 31 Item 10. Don’t assign undef when you want an empty array. 34 Item 11. Avoid a slice when you want an element. 37 Item 12. Understand context and how it affects operations. 41 Item 13. Use arrays or hashes to group data. 45 Item 14. Handle big numbers with bignum. 47   Chapter 2: Idiomatic Perl 51 Item 15. Use $_ for elegance and brevity. 53 Item 16. Know Perl’s other default arguments. 56 Item 17. Know common shorthand and syntax quirks. 60 Item 18. Avoid excessive punctuation. 66 Item 19. Format lists for easy maintenance. 68 Item 20. Use foreach, map, and grep as appropriate. 70 Item 21. Know the different ways to quote strings. 73 Item 22. Learn the myriad ways of sorting. 77 Item 23. Make work easier with smart matching. 84 Item 24. Use given-when to make a switch statement. 86 Item 25. Use do {} to create inline subroutines. 90 Item 26. Use List::Util and List::MoreUtils for easy list manipulation. 92 Item 27. Use autodie to simplify error handling. 96   Chapter 3: Regular Expressions 99 Item 28. Know the precedence of regular expression operators. 99 Item 29. Use regular expression captures. 103 Item 30. Use more precise whitespace character classes. 110 Item 31. Use named captures to label matches. 114 Item 32. Use noncapturing parentheses when you need only grouping. 116 Item 33. Watch out for the match variables. 117 Item 34. Avoid greed when parsimony is best. 119 Item 35. Use zero-width assertions to match positions in a string. 121 Item 36. Avoid using regular expressions for simple string operations. 125 Item 37. Make regular expressions readable. 129 Item 38. Avoid unnecessary backtracking. 132 Item 39. Compile regexes only once. 137 Item 40. Pre-compile regular expressions. 138 Item 41. Benchmark your regular expressions. 139 Item 42. Don’t reinvent the regex. 142   Chapter 4: Subroutines 145 Item 43. Understand the difference between my and local. 145 Item 44. Avoid using @_ directly unless you have to. 154 Item 45. Use wantarray to write subroutines returning lists. 157 Item 46. Pass references instead of copies. 160 Item 47. Use hashes to pass named parameters. 164 Item 48. Use prototypes to get special argument parsing. 168 Item 49. Create closures to lock in data. 171 Item 50. Create new subroutines with subroutines. 176   Chapter 5: Files and Filehandles 179 Item 51. Don’t ignore the file test operators. 179 Item 52. Always use the three-argument open. 182 Item 53. Consider different ways of reading from a stream. 183 Item 54. Open filehandles to and from strings. 186 Item 55. Make flexible output. 189 Item 56. Use File::Spec or Path::Class to work with paths. 192 Item 57. Leave most of the data on disk to save memory. 195   Chapter 6: References 201 Item 58. Understand references and reference syntax. 201 Item 59. Compare reference types to prototypes. 209 Item 60. Create arrays of arrays with references. 211 Item 61. Don’t confuse anonymous arrays with list literals. 214 Item 62. Build C-style structs with anonymous hashes. 216 Item 63. Be careful with circular data structures. 218 Item 64. Use map and grep to manipulate complex data structures. 221   Chapter 7: CPAN 227 Item 65. Install CPAN modules without admin privileges. 228 Item 66. Carry a CPAN with you. 231 Item 67. Mitigate the risk of public code. 235 Item 68. Research modules before you install them. 239 Item 69. Ensure that Perl can find your modules. 242 Item 70. Contribute to CPAN. 246 Item 71. Know the commonly used modules. 250   Chapter 8: Unicode 253 Item 72. Use Unicode in your source code. 254 Item 73. Tell Perl which encoding to use. 257 Item 74. Specify Unicode characters by code point or name. 258 Item 75. Convert octet strings to character strings. 261 Item 76. Match Unicode characters and properties. 265 Item 77. Work with graphemes instead of characters. 269 Item 78. Be careful with Unicode in your databases. 272   Chapter 9: Distributions 275 Item 79. Use Module::Build as your distribution builder. 275 Item 80. Don’t start distributions by hand. 278 Item 81. Choose a good module name. 283 Item 82. Embed your documentation with Pod. 287 Item 83. Limit your distributions to the right platforms. 292 Item 84. Check your Pod. 295 Item 85. Inline code for other languages. 298 Item 86. Use XS for low-level interfaces and speed. 301   Chapter 10: Testing 307 Item 87. Use prove for flexible test runs. 308 Item 88. Run tests only when they make sense. 311 Item 89. Use dependency injection to avoid special test logic. 314 Item 90. Don’t require more than you need to use in your methods. 317 Item 91. Write programs as modulinos for easy testing. 320 Item 92. Mock objects and interfaces to focus tests. 324 Item 93. Use SQLite to create test databases. 330 Item 94. Use Test::Class for more structured testing. 332 Item 95. Start testing at the beginning of your project. 335 Item 96. Measure your test coverage. 342 Item 97. Use CPAN Testers as your QA team. 346 Item 98. Set up a continuous build system. 348   Chapter 11: Warnings 357 Item 99. Enable warnings to let Perl spot suspicious code. 358 Item 100. Use lexical warnings to selectively turn on or off complaints. 361 Item 101. Use die to generate exceptions. 364 Item 102. Use Carp to get stack traces. 366 Item 103. Handle exceptions properly. 370 Item 104. Track dangerous data with taint checking. 372 Item 105. Start with taint warnings for legacy code. 375   Chapter 12: Databases 377 Item 106. Prepare your SQL statements to reuse work and save time. 377 Item 107. Use SQL placeholders for automatic value quoting. 382 Item 108. Bind return columns for faster access to data. 384 Item 109. Reuse database connections. 386   Chapter 13: Miscellany 391 Item 110. Compile and install your own perls. 391 Item 111. Use Perl::Tidy to beautify code. 394 Item 112. Use Perl Critic. 398 Item 113. Use Log::Log4perl to record your program’s state. 403 Item 114. Know when arrays are modified in a loop. 410 Item 115. Don’t use regular expressions for comma-separated values. 412 Item 116. Use unpack to process columnar data. 414 Item 117. Use pack and unpack for data munging. 416 Item 118. Access the symbol table with typeglobs. 423 Item 119. Initialize with BEGIN; finish with END. 425 Item 120. Use Perl one-liners to create mini programs. 428   Appendix A: Perl Resources 435   Appendix B: Map from First to Second Edition 439 Books 435 Websites 436 Blogs and Podcasts 437 Getting Help 437   Index 445