Perl in a Nutshell is a comprehensive reference guide to the Perl programming language. This book covers all the core features of the language. It ranges widely through the Perl programmer's universe, gathering together in convenient form a wealth of information about Perl itself and its application to CGI scripts, network programming, database interaction, and graphical user interfaces. It also gives detailed coverage about using Perl within a Win32 environment. This book assembles more information about the language in one place than any other reference work. Here are just some of the topics covered in the book:

• Basic language reference

• Introduction to using Perl modules

• Perl and CGI: CGI basics, CGI.pm, mod_perl

• DBI, the database-independent API for Perl

• Sockets programming in Perl

• LWP, the library for World Wide Web programming in Perl

• The Net::* modules

As part of the successful "in a Nutshell" series of books from O'Reilly & Associates, Perl in a Nutshell is for readers who want a single reference for all their needs.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 24 Ratings

I've used Perl for several years and love this book - 2004-05-03
Reviewer Rating:
Exactly as advertised, "Perl in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference" is a great reference book if you already have a basic understanding of Perl. Although it does have a section that it refers to as an "Introduction to Perl" it is actually a pretty cursory introduction and there are better books for learning the basics of Perl.

The book does have an excellent section on installing Perl including installation on both the Unix and Windows platforms. I've worked with both platforms and the installation process is well documented including how to install modules. This brings us to the large chapter on getting and installing Perl modules. I have spent hours sometimes trying to find an appropriate module for a special situation. This chapter lists all the most common modules and includes descriptions of what they do. This alone makes it a valuable resource for anyone involved in Perl.

The authors also include a lot of technical information including command line options and environment variables as well as a section on program structure, data types, special variables, operators, expressions, subroutines, filehandles, and just about anything else that you might need a quick refresher on.

Functions are listed both by category and by alphabetical order with descriptions and syntax information. I had a couple of problems on a large project recently and it took three days to get an answer through the forums on the Internet. The answers to all of them are right here and I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had had this book then.

A lot of other information is available in the book including CGI programming, Webserver programming, database programming, SOAP, Network modules including Net, Mail, NNTP, FTP, and LDAP, Perl/Tk, Win32 Modules and Extensions, OLE Automation, and ODBC Extensions. This book will be the one I keep close at hand when working with Perl and deserves its location on my desktop instead of in the library. "Perl in a Nutshell" is highly recommended for Perl programmers from basic to advanced level.

High Level Descriptions with Few Samples - 2002-07-24
Reviewer Rating:
This book is full of alphabetical high level descriptions (which are always ambiguous) of Perl language statements with few or no illustrative examples (which always help clear up ambiguity).
It is a waste of money.

A handy reference, but... - 2003-12-14
Reviewer Rating:
This is a handy reference, but if you have a limited budget you should probably go with Programming Perl and the Perl Cookbook before this one. This is a fine reference but it doesn't have the depth that the other books have and the information on the modules is available online through CPAN. I have the entire Perl library on my bookshelf and I hardly ever pick this one up.

Great reference! - 2002-09-06
Reviewer Rating:
I am not a beginning programmer nor am I what you would call an expert. Having a background in PHP made Perl easy to learn, so I didn't need a book that would "teach" Perl. All I needed was a good reference to figure out the differences between PHP and Perl. This book did exactly that! I was able to start programming within a day and I have referenced this book more times than I can count during my most recent development efforts. The binding is nearly worn out! I recommend this book to intermediate programmers that only need a small boost to get to work. If you're a beginner, buy this book to use after you learn the basics and you'll find it to be one of the most valuable tools on your desk!

Excellent - 2008-08-23
Reviewer Rating:
I have a shelf of Perl books from O'Reilly, from the Quick Reference to Advanced Perl Programming. This tends to be my first grab when I am looking for something. A bit thick when I am on the road, so I fall back to the Quick Reference, and whenever I do, I find I miss having the Nutshell book (with all my notes in the margins :) If I can't find it in this book, I jump to the Perl Reference most often.

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