Learning Perl, popularly known as "the Llama," is the book most programmers rely on to get started with Perl. The bestselling Perl tutorial since it was first published in 1993, this new fifth edition covers recent changes to the language up to Perl 5.10. This book reflects the combined experience of its authors, who have taught Perl at Stonehenge Consulting since 1991. Years of classroom testing and experience helped shape the book's pace and scope, and this edition is packed with exercises that let you practice the concepts while you follow the text. Topics include:

• Perl data & variable types

• Subroutines

• File operations

• Regular expressions

• String manipulation

• Lists & sorting

• Process management

• Smart matching

• Using third party modules

Perl is the language for people who want to get work done. Originally targeted to sysadmins for heavy-duty text processing, Perl is now a full-featured programming language suitable for almost any task on almost any platform-from short fixes on the command line to web applications, bioinformatics, finance, and much more. Other books may teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl programmer.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 301 Ratings

Start from the beginning and read every word - 2009-08-05
Reviewer Rating:
There could not ever be a better book for learning the Perl programming language than this one. The clarity of thought is unbelievable - the authors manage to provide a huge amount of detail while never going off on a tangent about exceptions to rules (something Perl, like English, is abundant with). If you want to get the basics of Perl under your fingertips in a *very* short amount of time, this is the book for you.

Let's face it - Perl can be a mess sometimes, and if you don't learn it from just the right angle, you'll find yourself knee-deep in a swamp. By choosing this book to learn from I effectively avoided all those pitfalls, and more importantly, adopted a clear way of using the language that has enabled me to write sophisticated, readable, even beautiful Perl code.

After some experience with the language I find it incredibly enjoyable to use, and when Perl is written well, it's easy to read someone else's code (to all you naysayers - yeah, Perl LETS you write bad code, but you don't have to!). This book was key to getting off on the right foot. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest whatsoever in the language. Even if you only plan to write Perl for your own purposes, recreational or otherwise, this is the perfect beginner's tool. Buy it.

Great Book for Beginners - 2009-08-28
Reviewer Rating:
To go along with everyone else, this book is great for beginning to learn how to program in PERL. A must for everyone.

Good, well-written introduction - 2009-08-26
Reviewer Rating:
I was pleased, as I often am with this publisher's books, with the clarity of the text. Within a few hours I was able to write my first useful perl scripts.

This book and a PC (with Perl downloaded, to permit you to execute & test your programs) make for a complete learning environment.

Learning Perl - 2009-08-22
Reviewer Rating:
This book is a great place to start your programming adventure. It clearly lines out complex concepts in a way beginners can understand. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in systems administration or web development.

Good fast shipping - 2009-08-06
Reviewer Rating:
Good fast shipping. Shipped in the state that was stated. I have not had much time with the book so i will not comment on the contents of the book.

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