<LI><A HREF="#why am i getting long decimals (eg, 19.9499999999999) instead of the numbers i should be getting (eg, 19.95)">Why am I getting long decimals (eg, 19.9499999999999) instead of the numbers I should be getting (eg, 19.95)?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#why isn't my octal data interpreted correctly">Why isn't my octal data interpreted correctly?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#does perl have a round() function what about ceil() and floor() trig functions">Does Perl have a <CODE>round()</CODE> function? What about <CODE>ceil()</CODE> and floor()? Trig functions?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i convert bits into ints">How do I convert bits into ints?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#why doesn't & work the way i want it to">Why doesn't & work the way I want it to?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i multiply matrices">How do I multiply matrices?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i perform an operation on a series of integers">How do I perform an operation on a series of integers?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i output roman numerals">How can I output Roman numerals?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#why aren't my random numbers random">Why aren't my random numbers random?</A></LI>
</UL>
<LI><A HREF="#data: dates">Data: Dates</A></LI>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i find the weekoftheyear/dayoftheyear">How do I find the week-of-the-year/day-of-the-year?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i find the current century or millennium">How do I find the current century or millennium?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i compare two dates and find the difference">How can I compare two dates and find the difference?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i take a string and turn it into epoch seconds">How can I take a string and turn it into epoch seconds?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i find the julian day">How can I find the Julian Day?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i find yesterday's date">How do I find yesterday's date?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#does perl have a year 2000 problem is perl y2k compliant">Does Perl have a Year 2000 problem? Is Perl Y2K compliant?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i validate input">How do I validate input?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i unescape a string">How do I unescape a string?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i remove consecutive pairs of characters">How do I remove consecutive pairs of characters?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i expand function calls in a string">How do I expand function calls in a string?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i find matching/nesting anything">How do I find matching/nesting anything?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i reverse a string">How do I reverse a string?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i expand tabs in a string">How do I expand tabs in a string?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i reformat a paragraph">How do I reformat a paragraph?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i access/change the first n letters of a string">How can I access/change the first N letters of a string?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i change the nth occurrence of something">How do I change the Nth occurrence of something?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i count the number of occurrences of a substring within a string">How can I count the number of occurrences of a substring within a string?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i capitalize all the words on one line">How do I capitalize all the words on one line?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i split a [character] delimited string except when inside">How can I split a [character] delimited string except when inside</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i strip blank space from the beginning/end of a string">How do I strip blank space from the beginning/end of a string?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i pad a string with blanks or pad a number with zeroes">How do I pad a string with blanks or pad a number with zeroes?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i extract selected columns from a string">How do I extract selected columns from a string?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i find the soundex value of a string">How do I find the soundex value of a string?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i expand variables in text strings">How can I expand variables in text strings?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#what's wrong with always quoting $vars">What's wrong with always quoting ``$vars''?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#why don't my <<here documents work">Why don't my <<HERE documents work?</A></LI>
</UL>
<LI><A HREF="#data: arrays">Data: Arrays</A></LI>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#what is the difference between a list and an array">What is the difference between a list and an array?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#what is the difference between $array[1] and @array[1]">What is the difference between $array[1] and @array[1]?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i remove duplicate elements from a list or array">How can I remove duplicate elements from a list or array?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i tell whether a list or array contains a certain element">How can I tell whether a list or array contains a certain element?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i compute the difference of two arrays how do i compute the intersection of two arrays">How do I compute the difference of two arrays? How do I compute the intersection of two arrays?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i test whether two arrays or hashes are equal">How do I test whether two arrays or hashes are equal?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i find the first array element for which a condition is true">How do I find the first array element for which a condition is true?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i handle linked lists">How do I handle linked lists?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i handle circular lists">How do I handle circular lists?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i shuffle an array randomly">How do I shuffle an array randomly?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i process/modify each element of an array">How do I process/modify each element of an array?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i select a random element from an array">How do I select a random element from an array?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i permute n elements of a list">How do I permute N elements of a list?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i sort an array by (anything)">How do I sort an array by (anything)?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i manipulate arrays of bits">How do I manipulate arrays of bits?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#why does defined() return true on empty arrays and hashes">Why does <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_defined"><CODE>defined()</CODE></A> return true on empty arrays and hashes?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i process an entire hash">How do I process an entire hash?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#what happens if i add or remove keys from a hash while iterating over it">What happens if I add or remove keys from a hash while iterating over it?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i look up a hash element by value">How do I look up a hash element by value?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i know how many entries are in a hash">How can I know how many entries are in a hash?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i sort a hash (optionally by value instead of key)">How do I sort a hash (optionally by value instead of key)?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i always keep my hash sorted">How can I always keep my hash sorted?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#what's the difference between delete and undef with hashes">What's the difference between ``delete'' and ``undef'' with hashes?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#why don't my tied hashes make the defined/exists distinction">Why don't my tied hashes make the defined/exists distinction?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i reset an each() operation partway through">How do I reset an <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_each"><CODE>each()</CODE></A> operation part-way through?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i get the unique keys from two hashes">How can I get the unique keys from two hashes?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i store a multidimensional array in a dbm file">How can I store a multidimensional array in a DBM file?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i make my hash remember the order i put elements into it">How can I make my hash remember the order I put elements into it?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#why does passing a subroutine an undefined element in a hash create it">Why does passing a subroutine an undefined element in a hash create it?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i make the perl equivalent of a c structure/c++ class/hash or array of hashes or arrays">How can I make the Perl equivalent of a C structure/C++ class/hash or array of hashes or arrays?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how can i use a reference as a hash key">How can I use a reference as a hash key?</A></LI>
</UL>
<LI><A HREF="#data: misc">Data: Misc</A></LI>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i handle binary data correctly">How do I handle binary data correctly?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i determine whether a scalar is a number/whole/integer/float">How do I determine whether a scalar is a number/whole/integer/float?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i keep persistent data across program calls">How do I keep persistent data across program calls?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i print out or copy a recursive data structure">How do I print out or copy a recursive data structure?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i define methods for every class/object">How do I define methods for every class/object?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i verify a credit card checksum">How do I verify a credit card checksum?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#how do i pack arrays of doubles or floats for xs code">How do I pack arrays of doubles or floats for XS code?</A></LI>
</UL>
<LI><A HREF="#author and copyright">AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT</A></LI>
<H2><A NAME="why am i getting long decimals (eg, 19.9499999999999) instead of the numbers i should be getting (eg, 19.95)">Why am I getting long decimals (eg, 19.9499999999999) instead of the numbers I should be getting (eg, 19.95)?</A></H2>
<P>The infinite set that a mathematician thinks of as the real numbers can
only be approximate on a computer, since the computer only has a finite
number of bits to store an infinite number of, um, numbers.</P>
<P>Internally, your computer represents floating-point numbers in binary.
Floating-point numbers read in from a file or appearing as literals
in your program are converted from their decimal floating-point
representation (eg, 19.95) to the internal binary representation.</P>
<P>However, 19.95 can't be precisely represented as a binary
floating-point number, just like 1/3 can't be exactly represented as a
decimal floating-point number. The computer's binary representation
of 19.95, therefore, isn't exactly 19.95.</P>
<P>When a floating-point number gets printed, the binary floating-point
representation is converted back to decimal. These decimal numbers
are displayed in either the format you specify with printf(), or the
current output format for numbers (see <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlvar.html#$#">$# in the perlvar manpage</A> if you use
print. <CODE>$#</CODE> has a different default value in Perl5 than it did in
Perl4. Changing <CODE>$#</CODE> yourself is deprecated.)</P>
<P>This affects <STRONG>all</STRONG> computer languages that represent decimal
floating-point numbers in binary, not just Perl. Perl provides
arbitrary-precision decimal numbers with the Math::BigFloat module
(part of the standard Perl distribution), but mathematical operations
are consequently slower.</P>
<P>To get rid of the superfluous digits, just use a format (eg,
<A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_printf"><CODE>printf("%.2f", 19.95)</CODE></A>) to get the required precision.
See <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlop.html#floatingpoint arithmetic">Floating-point Arithmetic in the perlop manpage</A>.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="why isn't my octal data interpreted correctly">Why isn't my octal data interpreted correctly?</A></H2>
<P>Perl only understands octal and hex numbers as such when they occur
as literals in your program. If they are read in from somewhere and
assigned, no automatic conversion takes place. You must explicitly
use <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_oct"><CODE>oct()</CODE></A> or <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_hex"><CODE>hex()</CODE></A> if you want the values converted. <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_oct"><CODE>oct()</CODE></A> interprets
both hex (``0x350'') numbers and octal ones (``0350'' or even without the
leading ``0'', like ``377''), while <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_hex"><CODE>hex()</CODE></A> only converts hexadecimal ones,
with or without a leading ``0x'', like ``0x255'', ``3A'', ``ff'', or ``deadbeef''.</P>
<P>This problem shows up most often when people try using chmod(), mkdir(),
umask(), or sysopen(), which all want permissions in octal.</P>
<PRE>
chmod(644, $file); # WRONG -- perl -w catches this
chmod(0644, $file); # right</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="does perl have a round() function what about ceil() and floor() trig functions">Does Perl have a <CODE>round()</CODE> function? What about <CODE>ceil()</CODE> and floor()? Trig functions?</A></H2>
<P>Remember that <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_int"><CODE>int()</CODE></A> merely truncates toward 0. For rounding to a
certain number of digits, <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_sprintf"><CODE>sprintf()</CODE></A> or <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_printf"><CODE>printf()</CODE></A> is usually the easiest
route.</P>
<PRE>
printf("%.3f", 3.1415926535); # prints 3.142</PRE>
<P>The POSIX module (part of the standard Perl distribution) implements
ceil(), floor(), and a number of other mathematical and trigonometric
functions.</P>
<PRE>
use POSIX;
$ceil = ceil(3.5); # 4
$floor = floor(3.5); # 3</PRE>
<P>In 5.000 to 5.003 Perls, trigonometry was done in the Math::Complex
module. With 5.004, the Math::Trig module (part of the standard Perl
distribution) implements the trigonometric functions. Internally it
uses the Math::Complex module and some functions can break out from
the real axis into the complex plane, for example the inverse sine of
2.</P>
<P>Rounding in financial applications can have serious implications, and
the rounding method used should be specified precisely. In these
cases, it probably pays not to trust whichever system rounding is
being used by Perl, but to instead implement the rounding function you
need yourself.</P>
<P>To see why, notice how you'll still have an issue on half-way-point
<P>Don't blame Perl. It's the same as in C. IEEE says we have to do this.
Perl numbers whose absolute values are integers under 2**31 (on 32 bit
machines) will work pretty much like mathematical integers. Other numbers
are not guaranteed.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i convert bits into ints">How do I convert bits into ints?</A></H2>
<P>To turn a string of 1s and 0s like <CODE>10110110</CODE> into a scalar containing
its binary value, use the <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_pack"><CODE>pack()</CODE></A> and <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_unpack"><CODE>unpack()</CODE></A> functions (documented in
<A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#pack">pack in the perlfunc manpage</A> and <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#unpack">unpack in the perlfunc manpage</A>):</P>
<P>This packs the string <CODE>10110110</CODE> into an eight bit binary structure.
This is then unpacked as a character, which returns its ordinal value.</P>
<P>This does the same thing:</P>
<PRE>
$decimal = ord(pack('B8', '10110110'));</PRE>
<P>Here's an example of going the other way:</P>
<PRE>
$binary_string = unpack('B*', "\x29");</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="why doesn't & work the way i want it to">Why doesn't & work the way I want it to?</A></H2>
<P>The behavior of binary arithmetic operators depends on whether they're
used on numbers or strings. The operators treat a string as a series
of bits and work with that (the string <CODE>"3"</CODE> is the bit pattern
<CODE>00110011</CODE>). The operators work with the binary form of a number
(the number <CODE>3</CODE> is treated as the bit pattern <CODE>00000011</CODE>).</P>
<P>So, saying <CODE>11 & 3</CODE> performs the ``and'' operation on numbers (yielding
<CODE>1</CODE>). Saying <CODE>"11" & "3"</CODE> performs the ``and'' operation on strings
(yielding <CODE>"1"</CODE>).</P>
<P>Most problems with <CODE>&</CODE> and <CODE>|</CODE> arise because the programmer thinks
they have a number but really it's a string. The rest arise because
the programmer says:</P>
<PRE>
if ("\020\020" & "\101\101") {
# ...
}</PRE>
<P>but a string consisting of two null bytes (the result of <CODE>"\020\020"
& "\101\101"</CODE>) is not a false value in Perl. You need:</P>
<PRE>
if ( ("\020\020" & "\101\101") !~ /[^\000]/) {
# ...
}</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i multiply matrices">How do I multiply matrices?</A></H2>
<P>Use the Math::Matrix or Math::MatrixReal modules (available from CPAN)
or the PDL extension (also available from CPAN).</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i perform an operation on a series of integers">How do I perform an operation on a series of integers?</A></H2>
<P>To call a function on each element in an array, and collect the
results, use:</P>
<PRE>
@results = map { my_func($_) } @array;</PRE>
<P>For example:</P>
<PRE>
@triple = map { 3 * $_ } @single;</PRE>
<P>To call a function on each element of an array, but ignore the
results:</P>
<PRE>
foreach $iterator (@array) {
some_func($iterator);
}</PRE>
<P>To call a function on each integer in a (small) range, you <STRONG>can</STRONG> use:</P>
<PRE>
@results = map { some_func($_) } (5 .. 25);</PRE>
<P>but you should be aware that the <CODE>..</CODE> operator creates an array of
all integers in the range. This can take a lot of memory for large
ranges. Instead use:</P>
<PRE>
@results = ();
for ($i=5; $i < 500_005; $i++) {
push(@results, some_func($i));
}</PRE>
<P>This situation has been fixed in Perl5.005. Use of <CODE>..</CODE> in a <CODE>for</CODE>
loop will iterate over the range, without creating the entire range.</P>
<PRE>
for my $i (5 .. 500_005) {
push(@results, some_func($i));
}</PRE>
<P>will not create a list of 500,000 integers.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i output roman numerals">How can I output Roman numerals?</A></H2>
<P>Get the <A HREF="http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module/Roman">http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module/Roman</A> module.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="why aren't my random numbers random">Why aren't my random numbers random?</A></H2>
<P>If you're using a version of Perl before 5.004, you must call <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_srand"><CODE>srand</CODE></A>
once at the start of your program to seed the random number generator.
5.004 and later automatically call <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_srand"><CODE>srand</CODE></A> at the beginning. Don't
call <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_srand"><CODE>srand</CODE></A> more than once--you make your numbers less random, rather
than more.</P>
<P>Computers are good at being predictable and bad at being random
(despite appearances caused by bugs in your programs :-).
<A HREF="http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FMTEYEWTK/random,">http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FMTEYEWTK/random,</A> courtesy of Tom
Phoenix, talks more about this.. John von Neumann said, ``Anyone who
attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of
course, living in a state of sin.''</P>
<P>If you want numbers that are more random than <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_rand"><CODE>rand</CODE></A> with <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_srand"><CODE>srand</CODE></A>
provides, you should also check out the Math::TrulyRandom module from
CPAN. It uses the imperfections in your system's timer to generate
random numbers, but this takes quite a while. If you want a better
pseudorandom generator than comes with your operating system, look at
``Numerical Recipes in C'' at <A HREF="http://www.nr.com/">http://www.nr.com/</A> .</P>
<P>
<HR>
<H1><A NAME="data: dates">Data: Dates</A></H1>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i find the weekoftheyear/dayoftheyear">How do I find the week-of-the-year/day-of-the-year?</A></H2>
<P>The day of the year is in the array returned by <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_localtime"><CODE>localtime()</CODE></A> (see
<A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#localtime">localtime in the perlfunc manpage</A>):</P>
<PRE>
$day_of_year = (localtime(time()))[7];</PRE>
<P>or more legibly (in 5.004 or higher):</P>
<PRE>
use Time::localtime;
$day_of_year = localtime(time())->yday;</PRE>
<P>You can find the week of the year by dividing this by 7:</P>
<PRE>
$week_of_year = int($day_of_year / 7);</PRE>
<P>Of course, this believes that weeks start at zero. The Date::Calc
module from CPAN has a lot of date calculation functions, including
day of the year, week of the year, and so on. Note that not
all businesses consider ``week 1'' to be the same; for example,
American businesses often consider the first week with a Monday
in it to be Work Week #1, despite ISO 8601, which considers
WW1 to be the first week with a Thursday in it.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i find the current century or millennium">How do I find the current century or millennium?</A></H2>
<P>On some systems, you'll find that the POSIX module's <CODE>strftime()</CODE> function
has been extended in a non-standard way to use a <CODE>%C</CODE> format, which they
sometimes claim is the ``century''. It isn't, because on most such systems,
this is only the first two digits of the four-digit year, and thus cannot
be used to reliably determine the current century or millennium.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i compare two dates and find the difference">How can I compare two dates and find the difference?</A></H2>
<P>If you're storing your dates as epoch seconds then simply subtract one
from the other. If you've got a structured date (distinct year, day,
month, hour, minute, seconds values), then for reasons of accessibility,
simplicity, and efficiency, merely use either timelocal or timegm (from
the Time::Local module in the standard distribution) to reduce structured
dates to epoch seconds. However, if you don't know the precise format of
your dates, then you should probably use either of the Date::Manip and
Date::Calc modules from CPAN before you go hacking up your own parsing
routine to handle arbitrary date formats.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i take a string and turn it into epoch seconds">How can I take a string and turn it into epoch seconds?</A></H2>
<P>If it's a regular enough string that it always has the same format,
you can split it up and pass the parts to <CODE>timelocal</CODE> in the standard
Time::Local module. Otherwise, you should look into the Date::Calc
and Date::Manip modules from CPAN.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i find the julian day">How can I find the Julian Day?</A></H2>
<P>Use the Time::JulianDay module (part of the Time-modules bundle
available from CPAN.)</P>
<P>Before you immerse yourself too deeply in this, be sure to verify that it
is the <EM>Julian</EM> Day you really want. Are they really just interested in
a way of getting serial days so that they can do date arithmetic? If you
are interested in performing date arithmetic, this can be done using
either Date::Manip or Date::Calc, without converting to Julian Day first.</P>
<P>There is too much confusion on this issue to cover in this FAQ, but the
term is applied (correctly) to a calendar now supplanted by the Gregorian
Calendar, with the Julian Calendar failing to adjust properly for leap
years on centennial years (among other annoyances). The term is also used
(incorrectly) to mean: [1] days in the Gregorian Calendar; and [2] days
since a particular starting time or `epoch', usually 1970 in the Unix
world and 1980 in the MS-DOS/Windows world. If you find that it is not
the first meaning that you really want, then check out the Date::Manip
and Date::Calc modules. (Thanks to David Cassell for most of this text.)</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i find yesterday's date">How do I find yesterday's date?</A></H2>
<P>The <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_time"><CODE>time()</CODE></A> function returns the current time in seconds since the
epoch. Take twenty-four hours off that:</P>
<PRE>
$yesterday = time() - ( 24 * 60 * 60 );</PRE>
<P>Then you can pass this to <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_localtime"><CODE>localtime()</CODE></A> and get the individual year,
month, day, hour, minute, seconds values.</P>
<P>Note very carefully that the code above assumes that your days are
twenty-four hours each. For most people, there are two days a year
when they aren't: the switch to and from summer time throws this off.
A solution to this issue is offered by Russ Allbery.</P>
<PRE>
sub yesterday {
my $now = defined $_[0] ? $_[0] : time;
my $then = $now - 60 * 60 * 24;
my $ndst = (localtime $now)[8] > 0;
my $tdst = (localtime $then)[8] > 0;
$then - ($tdst - $ndst) * 60 * 60;
}
# Should give you "this time yesterday" in seconds since epoch relative to
# the first argument or the current time if no argument is given and
# suitable for passing to localtime or whatever else you need to do with
# it. $ndst is whether we're currently in daylight savings time; $tdst is
# whether the point 24 hours ago was in daylight savings time. If $tdst
# and $ndst are the same, a boundary wasn't crossed, and the correction
# will subtract 0. If $tdst is 1 and $ndst is 0, subtract an hour more
# from yesterday's time since we gained an extra hour while going off
# daylight savings time. If $tdst is 0 and $ndst is 1, subtract a
# negative hour (add an hour) to yesterday's time since we lost an hour.
#
# All of this is because during those days when one switches off or onto
# DST, a "day" isn't 24 hours long; it's either 23 or 25.
#
# The explicit settings of $ndst and $tdst are necessary because localtime
# only says it returns the system tm struct, and the system tm struct at
# least on Solaris doesn't guarantee any particular positive value (like,
# say, 1) for isdst, just a positive value. And that value can
# potentially be negative, if DST information isn't available (this sub
# just treats those cases like no DST).
#
# Note that between 2am and 3am on the day after the time zone switches
# off daylight savings time, the exact hour of "yesterday" corresponding
# to the current hour is not clearly defined. Note also that if used
# between 2am and 3am the day after the change to daylight savings time,
# the result will be between 3am and 4am of the previous day; it's
# arguable whether this is correct.
#
# This sub does not attempt to deal with leap seconds (most things don't).
#
# Copyright relinquished 1999 by Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>
# This code is in the public domain</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="does perl have a year 2000 problem is perl y2k compliant">Does Perl have a Year 2000 problem? Is Perl Y2K compliant?</A></H2>
<P>Short answer: No, Perl does not have a Year 2000 problem. Yes, Perl is
Y2K compliant (whatever that means). The programmers you've hired to
use it, however, probably are not.</P>
<P>Long answer: The question belies a true understanding of the issue.
Perl is just as Y2K compliant as your pencil--no more, and no less.
Can you use your pencil to write a non-Y2K-compliant memo? Of course
you can. Is that the pencil's fault? Of course it isn't.</P>
<P>The date and time functions supplied with Perl (gmtime and localtime)
supply adequate information to determine the year well beyond 2000
(2038 is when trouble strikes for 32-bit machines). The year returned
by these functions when used in an array context is the year minus 1900.
For years between 1910 and 1999 this <EM>happens</EM> to be a 2-digit decimal
number. To avoid the year 2000 problem simply do not treat the year as
a 2-digit number. It isn't.</P>
<P>When <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_gmtime"><CODE>gmtime()</CODE></A> and <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_localtime"><CODE>localtime()</CODE></A> are used in scalar context they return
a timestamp string that contains a fully-expanded year. For example,
<A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_gmtime"><CODE>$timestamp = gmtime(1005613200)</CODE></A> sets $timestamp to ``Tue Nov 13 01:00:00
2001''. There's no year 2000 problem here.</P>
<P>That doesn't mean that Perl can't be used to create non-Y2K compliant
programs. It can. But so can your pencil. It's the fault of the user,
not the language. At the risk of inflaming the NRA: ``Perl doesn't
break Y2K, people do.'' See <A HREF="http://language.perl.com/news/y2k.html">http://language.perl.com/news/y2k.html</A> for
<H2><A NAME="how do i reverse a string">How do I reverse a string?</A></H2>
<P>Use <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_reverse"><CODE>reverse()</CODE></A> in scalar context, as documented in
<A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#reverse">reverse in the perlfunc manpage</A>.</P>
<PRE>
$reversed = reverse $string;</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i expand tabs in a string">How do I expand tabs in a string?</A></H2>
<P>You can do it yourself:</P>
<PRE>
1 while $string =~ s/\t+/' ' x (length($&) * 8 - length($`) % 8)/e;</PRE>
<P>Or you can just use the Text::Tabs module (part of the standard Perl
distribution).</P>
<PRE>
use Text::Tabs;
@expanded_lines = expand(@lines_with_tabs);</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i reformat a paragraph">How do I reformat a paragraph?</A></H2>
<P>Use Text::Wrap (part of the standard Perl distribution):</P>
<PRE>
use Text::Wrap;
print wrap("\t", ' ', @paragraphs);</PRE>
<P>The paragraphs you give to Text::Wrap should not contain embedded
newlines. Text::Wrap doesn't justify the lines (flush-right).</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i access/change the first n letters of a string">How can I access/change the first N letters of a string?</A></H2>
<P>There are many ways. If you just want to grab a copy, use
substr():</P>
<PRE>
$first_byte = substr($a, 0, 1);</PRE>
<P>If you want to modify part of a string, the simplest way is often to
use <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_substr"><CODE>substr()</CODE></A> as an lvalue:</P>
<PRE>
substr($a, 0, 3) = "Tom";</PRE>
<P>Although those with a pattern matching kind of thought process will
likely prefer:</P>
<PRE>
$a =~ s/^.../Tom/;</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i change the nth occurrence of something">How do I change the Nth occurrence of something?</A></H2>
<P>You have to keep track of N yourself. For example, let's say you want
to change the fifth occurrence of <CODE>"whoever"</CODE> or <CODE>"whomever"</CODE> into
<CODE>"whosoever"</CODE> or <CODE>"whomsoever"</CODE>, case insensitively. These
all assume that $_ contains the string to be altered.</P>
<PRE>
$count = 0;
s{((whom?)ever)}{
++$count == 5 # is it the 5th?
? "${2}soever" # yes, swap
: $1 # renege and leave it there
}ige;</PRE>
<P>In the more general case, you can use the <CODE>/g</CODE> modifier in a <CODE>while</CODE>
loop, keeping count of matches.</P>
<PRE>
$WANT = 3;
$count = 0;
$_ = "One fish two fish red fish blue fish";
while (/(\w+)\s+fish\b/gi) {
if (++$count == $WANT) {
print "The third fish is a $1 one.\n";
}
}</PRE>
<P>That prints out: <CODE>"The third fish is a red one."</CODE> You can also use a
repetition count and repeated pattern like this:</P>
<PRE>
/(?:\w+\s+fish\s+){2}(\w+)\s+fish/i;</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i count the number of occurrences of a substring within a string">How can I count the number of occurrences of a substring within a string?</A></H2>
<P>There are a number of ways, with varying efficiency: If you want a
count of a certain single character (X) within a string, you can use the
<CODE>tr///</CODE> function like so:</P>
<PRE>
$string = "ThisXlineXhasXsomeXx'sXinXit";
$count = ($string =~ tr/X//);
print "There are $count X characters in the string";</PRE>
<P>This is fine if you are just looking for a single character. However,
if you are trying to count multiple character substrings within a
larger string, <CODE>tr///</CODE> won't work. What you can do is wrap a <CODE>while()</CODE>
loop around a global pattern match. For example, let's count negative
integers:</P>
<PRE>
$string = "-9 55 48 -2 23 -76 4 14 -44";
while ($string =~ /-\d+/g) { $count++ }
print "There are $count negative numbers in the string";</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i capitalize all the words on one line">How do I capitalize all the words on one line?</A></H2>
<P>To make the first letter of each word upper case:</P>
<PRE>
$line =~ s/\b(\w)/\U$1/g;</PRE>
<P>This has the strange effect of turning ``<CODE>don't do it</CODE>'' into ``<CODE>Don'T
Do It</CODE>''. Sometimes you might want this, instead (Suggested by brian d.
foy):</P>
<PRE>
$string =~ s/ (
(^\w) #at the beginning of the line
| # or
(\s\w) #preceded by whitespace
)
/\U$1/xg;
$string =~ /([\w']+)/\u\L$1/g;</PRE>
<P>To make the whole line upper case:</P>
<PRE>
$line = uc($line);</PRE>
<P>To force each word to be lower case, with the first letter upper case:</P>
<PRE>
$line =~ s/(\w+)/\u\L$1/g;</PRE>
<P>You can (and probably should) enable locale awareness of those
characters by placing a <CODE>use locale</CODE> pragma in your program.
See <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perllocale.html">the perllocale manpage</A> for endless details on locales.</P>
<P>This is sometimes referred to as putting something into ``title
case'', but that's not quite accurate. Consider the proper
capitalization of the movie <EM>Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to
Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb</EM>, for example.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i split a [character] delimited string except when inside [character] (commaseparated files)">How can I split a [character] delimited string except when inside
[character]? (Comma-separated files)</A></H2>
<P>Take the example case of trying to split a string that is comma-separated
into its different fields. (We'll pretend you said comma-separated, not
comma-delimited, which is different and almost never what you mean.) You
can't use <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_split"><CODE>split(/,/)</CODE></A> because you shouldn't split if the comma is inside
quotes. For example, take a data line like this:</P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i extract selected columns from a string">How do I extract selected columns from a string?</A></H2>
<P>Use <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_substr"><CODE>substr()</CODE></A> or unpack(), both documented in <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html">the perlfunc manpage</A>.
If you prefer thinking in terms of columns instead of widths,
you can use this kind of thing:</P>
<PRE>
# determine the unpack format needed to split Linux ps output
<P>Or with a fixed amount of leading white space, with remaining
indentation correctly preserved:</P>
<PRE>
$poem = fix<<EVER_ON_AND_ON;
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
--Bilbo in /usr/src/perl/pp_ctl.c
EVER_ON_AND_ON</PRE>
<P>
<HR>
<H1><A NAME="data: arrays">Data: Arrays</A></H1>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="what is the difference between a list and an array">What is the difference between a list and an array?</A></H2>
<P>An array has a changeable length. A list does not. An array is something
you can push or pop, while a list is a set of values. Some people make
the distinction that a list is a value while an array is a variable.
Subroutines are passed and return lists, you put things into list
context, you initialize arrays with lists, and you <CODE>foreach()</CODE> across
a list. <CODE>@</CODE> variables are arrays, anonymous arrays are arrays, arrays
in scalar context behave like the number of elements in them, subroutines
access their arguments through the array <CODE>@_</CODE>, push/pop/shift only work
on arrays.</P>
<P>As a side note, there's no such thing as a list in scalar context.
When you say</P>
<PRE>
$scalar = (2, 5, 7, 9);</PRE>
<P>you're using the comma operator in scalar context, so it uses the scalar
comma operator. There never was a list there at all! This causes the
last value to be returned: 9.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="what is the difference between $array[1] and @array[1]">What is the difference between $array[1] and @array[1]?</A></H2>
<P>The former is a scalar value, the latter an array slice, which makes
it a list with one (scalar) value. You should use $ when you want a
scalar value (most of the time) and @ when you want a list with one
scalar value in it (very, very rarely; nearly never, in fact).</P>
<P>Sometimes it doesn't make a difference, but sometimes it does.
For example, compare:</P>
<PRE>
$good[0] = `some program that outputs several lines`;</PRE>
<P>with</P>
<PRE>
@bad[0] = `same program that outputs several lines`;</PRE>
<P>The <CODE>use warnings</CODE> pragma and the <STRONG>-w</STRONG> flag will warn you about these
matters.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i remove duplicate elements from a list or array">How can I remove duplicate elements from a list or array?</A></H2>
<P>There are several possible ways, depending on whether the array is
ordered and whether you wish to preserve the ordering.</P>
<DL>
<DT><STRONG><A NAME="item_a%29_If_%40in_is_sorted%2C_and_you_want_%40out_to_">a) If @in is sorted, and you want @out to be sorted:
(this assumes all true values in the array)</A></STRONG><BR>
<DD>
<PRE>
$prev = 'nonesuch';
@out = grep($_ ne $prev && ($prev = $_), @in);</PRE>
<P>This is nice in that it doesn't use much extra memory, simulating
uniq(1)'s behavior of removing only adjacent duplicates. It's less
nice in that it won't work with false values like undef, 0, or ``'';
``0 but true'' is OK, though.</P>
<DT><STRONG><A NAME="item_b%29_If_you_don%27t_know_whether_%40in_is_sorted%3">b) If you don't know whether @in is sorted:</A></STRONG><BR>
<DD>
<PRE>
undef %saw;
@out = grep(!$saw{$_}++, @in);</PRE>
<DT><STRONG><A NAME="item_Like">c) Like (b), but @in contains only small integers:</A></STRONG><BR>
<DD>
<PRE>
@out = grep(!$saw[$_]++, @in);</PRE>
<DT><STRONG><A NAME="item_do">d) A way to do (b) without any loops or greps:</A></STRONG><BR>
<DD>
<PRE>
undef %saw;
@saw{@in} = ();
@out = sort keys %saw; # remove sort if undesired</PRE>
<DT><STRONG>e) Like (d), but @in contains only small positive integers:</STRONG><BR>
<DD>
<PRE>
undef @ary;
@ary[@in] = @in;
@out = grep {defined} @ary;</PRE>
</DL>
<P>But perhaps you should have been using a hash all along, eh?</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i tell whether a list or array contains a certain element">How can I tell whether a list or array contains a certain element?</A></H2>
<P>Hearing the word ``in'' is an <EM>in</EM>dication that you probably should have
used a hash, not a list or array, to store your data. Hashes are
designed to answer this question quickly and efficiently. Arrays aren't.</P>
<P>That being said, there are several ways to approach this. If you
are going to make this query many times over arbitrary string values,
the fastest way is probably to invert the original array and keep an
associative array lying about whose keys are the first array's values.</P>
# or simply @istiny_prime[@primes] = (1) x @primes;</PRE>
<P>Now you check whether $is_tiny_prime[$some_number].</P>
<P>If the values in question are integers instead of strings, you can save
quite a lot of space by using bit strings instead:</P>
<PRE>
@articles = ( 1..10, 150..2000, 2017 );
undef $read;
for (@articles) { vec($read,$_,1) = 1 }</PRE>
<P>Now check whether <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_vec"><CODE>vec($read,$n,1)</CODE></A> is true for some <CODE>$n</CODE>.</P>
<P>Please do not use</P>
<PRE>
$is_there = grep $_ eq $whatever, @array;</PRE>
<P>or worse yet</P>
<PRE>
$is_there = grep /$whatever/, @array;</PRE>
<P>These are slow (checks every element even if the first matches),
inefficient (same reason), and potentially buggy (what if there are
regex characters in $whatever?). If you're only testing once, then
use:</P>
<PRE>
$is_there = 0;
foreach $elt (@array) {
if ($elt eq $elt_to_find) {
$is_there = 1;
last;
}
}
if ($is_there) { ... }</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i compute the difference of two arrays how do i compute the intersection of two arrays">How do I compute the difference of two arrays? How do I compute the intersection of two arrays?</A></H2>
<P>Use a hash. Here's code to do both and more. It assumes that
cmpStr(\%a, \%b) == 0 ? "the same" : "different";</PRE>
<PRE>
printf "a and b contain %s hashes\n",
cmpStrHard(\%a, \%b) == 0 ? "the same" : "different";</PRE>
<P>The first reports that both those the hashes contain the same data,
while the second reports that they do not. Which you prefer is left as
an exercise to the reader.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i find the first array element for which a condition is true">How do I find the first array element for which a condition is true?</A></H2>
<P>You can use this if you care about the index:</P>
<PRE>
for ($i= 0; $i < @array; $i++) {
if ($array[$i] eq "Waldo") {
$found_index = $i;
last;
}
}</PRE>
<P>Now <CODE>$found_index</CODE> has what you want.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i handle linked lists">How do I handle linked lists?</A></H2>
<P>In general, you usually don't need a linked list in Perl, since with
regular arrays, you can push and pop or shift and unshift at either end,
or you can use splice to add and/or remove arbitrary number of elements at
arbitrary points. Both pop and shift are both <CODE>O(1)</CODE> operations on Perl's
dynamic arrays. In the absence of shifts and pops, push in general
needs to reallocate on the order every <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_log"><CODE>log(N)</CODE></A> times, and unshift will
need to copy pointers each time.</P>
<P>If you really, really wanted, you could use structures as described in
<A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perldsc.html">the perldsc manpage</A> or <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perltoot.html">the perltoot manpage</A> and do just what the algorithm book tells you
to do. For example, imagine a list node like this:</P>
<PRE>
$node = {
VALUE => 42,
LINK => undef,
};</PRE>
<P>You could walk the list this way:</P>
<PRE>
print "List: ";
for ($node = $head; $node; $node = $node->{LINK}) {
print $node->{VALUE}, " ";
}
print "\n";</PRE>
<P>You could grow the list this way:</P>
<PRE>
my ($head, $tail);
$tail = append($head, 1); # grow a new head
for $value ( 2 .. 10 ) {
$tail = append($tail, $value);
}</PRE>
<PRE>
sub append {
my($list, $value) = @_;
my $node = { VALUE => $value };
if ($list) {
$node->{LINK} = $list->{LINK};
$list->{LINK} = $node;
} else {
$_[0] = $node; # replace caller's version
}
return $node;
}</PRE>
<P>But again, Perl's built-in are virtually always good enough.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i handle circular lists">How do I handle circular lists?</A></H2>
<P>Circular lists could be handled in the traditional fashion with linked
lists, or you could just do something like this with an array:</P>
<PRE>
unshift(@array, pop(@array)); # the last shall be first
push(@array, shift(@array)); # and vice versa</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i shuffle an array randomly">How do I shuffle an array randomly?</A></H2>
<P>Use this:</P>
<PRE>
# fisher_yates_shuffle( \@array ) :
# generate a random permutation of @array in place
sub fisher_yates_shuffle {
my $array = shift;
my $i;
for ($i = @$array; --$i; ) {
my $j = int rand ($i+1);
next if $i == $j;
@$array[$i,$j] = @$array[$j,$i];
}
}</PRE>
<PRE>
fisher_yates_shuffle( \@array ); # permutes @array in place</PRE>
<P>You've probably seen shuffling algorithms that work using splice,
randomly picking another element to swap the current element with:</P>
<PRE>
srand;
@new = ();
@old = 1 .. 10; # just a demo
while (@old) {
push(@new, splice(@old, rand @old, 1));
}</PRE>
<P>This is bad because splice is already O(N), and since you do it N times,
you just invented a quadratic algorithm; that is, O(N**2). This does
not scale, although Perl is so efficient that you probably won't notice
this until you have rather largish arrays.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i process/modify each element of an array">How do I process/modify each element of an array?</A></H2>
for (@volumes = @radii) { # @volumes has changed parts
$_ **= 3;
$_ *= (4/3) * 3.14159; # this will be constant folded
}</PRE>
<P>If you want to do the same thing to modify the values of the hash,
you may not use the <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_values"><CODE>values</CODE></A> function, oddly enough. You need a slice:</P>
<PRE>
for $orbit ( @orbits{keys %orbits} ) {
($orbit **= 3) *= (4/3) * 3.14159;
}</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i select a random element from an array">How do I select a random element from an array?</A></H2>
<P>Use the <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_rand"><CODE>rand()</CODE></A> function (see <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#rand">rand in the perlfunc manpage</A>):</P>
<PRE>
# at the top of the program:
srand; # not needed for 5.004 and later</PRE>
<PRE>
# then later on
$index = rand @array;
$element = $array[$index];</PRE>
<P>Make sure you <EM>only call srand once per program, if then</EM>.
If you are calling it more than once (such as before each
call to rand), you're almost certainly doing something wrong.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i permute n elements of a list">How do I permute N elements of a list?</A></H2>
<P>Here's a little program that generates all permutations
of all the words on each line of input. The algorithm embodied
in the <CODE>permute()</CODE> function should work on any list:</P>
<PRE>
#!/usr/bin/perl -n
# tsc-permute: permute each word of input
permute([split], []);
sub permute {
my @items = @{ $_[0] };
my @perms = @{ $_[1] };
unless (@items) {
print "@perms\n";
} else {
my(@newitems,@newperms,$i);
foreach $i (0 .. $#items) {
@newitems = @items;
@newperms = @perms;
unshift(@newperms, splice(@newitems, $i, 1));
permute([@newitems], [@newperms]);
}
}
}</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i sort an array by (anything)">How do I sort an array by (anything)?</A></H2>
<P>Supply a comparison function to <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_sort"><CODE>sort()</CODE></A> (described in <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#sort">sort in the perlfunc manpage</A>):</P>
<PRE>
@list = sort { $a <=> $b } @list;</PRE>
<P>The default sort function is cmp, string comparison, which would
sort <CODE>(1, 2, 10)</CODE> into <CODE>(1, 10, 2)</CODE>. <CODE><=></CODE>, used above, is
the numerical comparison operator.</P>
<P>If you have a complicated function needed to pull out the part you
want to sort on, then don't do it inside the sort function. Pull it
out first, because the sort BLOCK can be called many times for the
same element. Here's an example of how to pull out the first word
after the first number on each item, and then sort those words
<P>If you need to sort on several fields, the following paradigm is useful.</P>
<PRE>
@sorted = sort { field1($a) <=> field1($b) ||
field2($a) cmp field2($b) ||
field3($a) cmp field3($b)
} @data;</PRE>
<P>This can be conveniently combined with precalculation of keys as given
above.</P>
<P>See <A HREF="http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FMTEYEWTK/sort.html">http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FMTEYEWTK/sort.html</A> for more about
this approach.</P>
<P>See also the question below on sorting hashes.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i manipulate arrays of bits">How do I manipulate arrays of bits?</A></H2>
<P>Use <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_pack"><CODE>pack()</CODE></A> and unpack(), or else <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_vec"><CODE>vec()</CODE></A> and the bitwise operations.</P>
<P>For example, this sets $vec to have bit N set if $ints[N] was set:</P>
<PRE>
$vec = '';
foreach(@ints) { vec($vec,$_,1) = 1 }</PRE>
<P>And here's how, given a vector in $vec, you can
get those bits into your @ints array:</P>
<PRE>
sub bitvec_to_list {
my $vec = shift;
my @ints;
# Find null-byte density then select best algorithm
if ($vec =~ tr/\0// / length $vec > 0.95) {
use integer;
my $i;
# This method is faster with mostly null-bytes
while($vec =~ /[^\0]/g ) {
$i = -9 + 8 * pos $vec;
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
}
} else {
# This method is a fast general algorithm
use integer;
my $bits = unpack "b*", $vec;
push @ints, 0 if $bits =~ s/^(\d)// && $1;
push @ints, pos $bits while($bits =~ /1/g);
}
return \@ints;
}</PRE>
<P>This method gets faster the more sparse the bit vector is.
(Courtesy of Tim Bunce and Winfried Koenig.)</P>
<P>Here's a demo on how to use vec():</P>
<PRE>
# vec demo
$vector = "\xff\x0f\xef\xfe";
print "Ilya's string \\xff\\x0f\\xef\\xfe represents the number ",
unpack("N", $vector), "\n";
$is_set = vec($vector, 23, 1);
print "Its 23rd bit is ", $is_set ? "set" : "clear", ".\n";
print "vector length in bytes: ", length($vector), "\n";
@bytes = unpack("A8" x length($vector), $bits);
print "bits are: @bytes\n\n";
}</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="why does defined() return true on empty arrays and hashes">Why does <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_defined"><CODE>defined()</CODE></A> return true on empty arrays and hashes?</A></H2>
<P>The short story is that you should probably only use defined on scalars or
functions, not on aggregates (arrays and hashes). See <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#defined">defined in the perlfunc manpage</A>
in the 5.004 release or later of Perl for more detail.</P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i process an entire hash">How do I process an entire hash?</A></H2>
<P>Use the <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_each"><CODE>each()</CODE></A> function (see <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#each">each in the perlfunc manpage</A>) if you don't care
whether it's sorted:</P>
<PRE>
while ( ($key, $value) = each %hash) {
print "$key = $value\n";
}</PRE>
<P>If you want it sorted, you'll have to use <CODE>foreach()</CODE> on the result of
sorting the keys as shown in an earlier question.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="what happens if i add or remove keys from a hash while iterating over it">What happens if I add or remove keys from a hash while iterating over it?</A></H2>
<P>Don't do that. :-)</P>
<P>[lwall] In Perl 4, you were not allowed to modify a hash at all while
iterating over it. In Perl 5 you can delete from it, but you still
can't add to it, because that might cause a doubling of the hash table,
in which half the entries get copied up to the new top half of the
table, at which point you've totally bamboozled the iterator code.
Even if the table doesn't double, there's no telling whether your new
entry will be inserted before or after the current iterator position.</P>
<P>Either treasure up your changes and make them after the iterator finishes,
or use keys to fetch all the old keys at once, and iterate over the list
of keys.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i look up a hash element by value">How do I look up a hash element by value?</A></H2>
<P>Create a reverse hash:</P>
<PRE>
%by_value = reverse %by_key;
$key = $by_value{$value};</PRE>
<P>That's not particularly efficient. It would be more space-efficient
to use:</P>
<PRE>
while (($key, $value) = each %by_key) {
$by_value{$value} = $key;
}</PRE>
<P>If your hash could have repeated values, the methods above will only find
one of the associated keys. This may or may not worry you. If it does
worry you, you can always reverse the hash into a hash of arrays instead:</P>
<PRE>
while (($key, $value) = each %by_key) {
push @{$key_list_by_value{$value}}, $key;
}</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i know how many entries are in a hash">How can I know how many entries are in a hash?</A></H2>
<P>If you mean how many keys, then all you have to do is
take the scalar sense of the <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_keys"><CODE>keys()</CODE></A> function:</P>
<PRE>
$num_keys = scalar keys %hash;</PRE>
<P>In void context, the <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_keys"><CODE>keys()</CODE></A> function just resets the iterator, which is
faster for tied hashes than would be iterating through the whole
hash, one key-value pair at a time.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i sort a hash (optionally by value instead of key)">How do I sort a hash (optionally by value instead of key)?</A></H2>
<P>Internally, hashes are stored in a way that prevents you from imposing
an order on key-value pairs. Instead, you have to sort a list of the
keys or values:</P>
<PRE>
@keys = sort keys %hash; # sorted by key
@keys = sort {
$hash{$a} cmp $hash{$b}
} keys %hash; # and by value</PRE>
<P>Here we'll do a reverse numeric sort by value, and if two keys are
identical, sort by length of key, and if that fails, by straight ASCII
comparison of the keys (well, possibly modified by your locale -- see
<H2><A NAME="how can i always keep my hash sorted">How can I always keep my hash sorted?</A></H2>
<P>You can look into using the DB_File module and <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_tie"><CODE>tie()</CODE></A> using the
$DB_BTREE hash bindings as documented in <A HREF="../../lib/auto/DB_File/in memory databases.html">In Memory Databases in the DB_File manpage</A>.
The Tie::IxHash module from CPAN might also be instructive.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="what's the difference between delete and undef with hashes">What's the difference between ``delete'' and ``undef'' with hashes?</A></H2>
<P>Hashes are pairs of scalars: the first is the key, the second is the
value. The key will be coerced to a string, although the value can be
any kind of scalar: string, number, or reference. If a key <CODE>$key</CODE> is
present in the array, <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_exists"><CODE>exists($key)</CODE></A> will return true. The value for
a given key can be <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_undef"><CODE>undef</CODE></A>, in which case <CODE>$array{$key}</CODE> will be
<A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_undef"><CODE>undef</CODE></A> while <CODE>$exists{$key}</CODE> will return true. This corresponds to
(<CODE>$key</CODE>, <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_undef"><CODE>undef</CODE></A>) being in the hash.</P>
<P>Pictures help... here's the <CODE>%ary</CODE> table:</P>
<PRE>
keys values
+------+------+
| a | 3 |
| x | 7 |
| d | 0 |
| e | 2 |
+------+------+</PRE>
<P>And these conditions hold</P>
<PRE>
$ary{'a'} is true
$ary{'d'} is false
defined $ary{'d'} is true
defined $ary{'a'} is true
exists $ary{'a'} is true (Perl5 only)
grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %ary) is true</PRE>
<P>If you now say</P>
<PRE>
undef $ary{'a'}</PRE>
<P>your table now reads:</P>
<PRE>
keys values
+------+------+
| a | undef|
| x | 7 |
| d | 0 |
| e | 2 |
+------+------+</PRE>
<P>and these conditions now hold; changes in caps:</P>
<PRE>
$ary{'a'} is FALSE
$ary{'d'} is false
defined $ary{'d'} is true
defined $ary{'a'} is FALSE
exists $ary{'a'} is true (Perl5 only)
grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %ary) is true</PRE>
<P>Notice the last two: you have an undef value, but a defined key!</P>
<P>Now, consider this:</P>
<PRE>
delete $ary{'a'}</PRE>
<P>your table now reads:</P>
<PRE>
keys values
+------+------+
| x | 7 |
| d | 0 |
| e | 2 |
+------+------+</PRE>
<P>and these conditions now hold; changes in caps:</P>
<PRE>
$ary{'a'} is false
$ary{'d'} is false
defined $ary{'d'} is true
defined $ary{'a'} is false
exists $ary{'a'} is FALSE (Perl5 only)
grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %ary) is FALSE</PRE>
<P>See, the whole entry is gone!</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="why don't my tied hashes make the defined/exists distinction">Why don't my tied hashes make the defined/exists distinction?</A></H2>
<P>They may or may not implement the <CODE>EXISTS()</CODE> and <CODE>DEFINED()</CODE> methods
differently. For example, there isn't the concept of undef with hashes
that are tied to DBM* files. This means the true/false tables above
will give different results when used on such a hash. It also means
that exists and defined do the same thing with a DBM* file, and what
they end up doing is not what they do with ordinary hashes.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i reset an each() operation partway through">How do I reset an <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_each"><CODE>each()</CODE></A> operation part-way through?</A></H2>
<P>Using <CODE>keys %hash</CODE> in scalar context returns the number of keys in
the hash <EM>and</EM> resets the iterator associated with the hash. You may
need to do this if you use <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_last"><CODE>last</CODE></A> to exit a loop early so that when you
re-enter it, the hash iterator has been reset.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i get the unique keys from two hashes">How can I get the unique keys from two hashes?</A></H2>
<P>First you extract the keys from the hashes into lists, then solve
the ``removing duplicates'' problem described above. For example:</P>
<PRE>
%seen = ();
for $element (keys(%foo), keys(%bar)) {
$seen{$element}++;
}
@uniq = keys %seen;</PRE>
<P>Or more succinctly:</P>
<PRE>
@uniq = keys %{{%foo,%bar}};</PRE>
<P>Or if you really want to save space:</P>
<PRE>
%seen = ();
while (defined ($key = each %foo)) {
$seen{$key}++;
}
while (defined ($key = each %bar)) {
$seen{$key}++;
}
@uniq = keys %seen;</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i store a multidimensional array in a dbm file">How can I store a multidimensional array in a DBM file?</A></H2>
<P>Either stringify the structure yourself (no fun), or else
get the MLDBM (which uses Data::Dumper) module from CPAN and layer
it on top of either DB_File or GDBM_File.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i make my hash remember the order i put elements into it">How can I make my hash remember the order I put elements into it?</A></H2>
<P>Use the Tie::IxHash from CPAN.</P>
<PRE>
use Tie::IxHash;
tie(%myhash, Tie::IxHash);
for ($i=0; $i<20; $i++) {
$myhash{$i} = 2*$i;
}
@keys = keys %myhash;
# @keys = (0,1,2,3,...)</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="why does passing a subroutine an undefined element in a hash create it">Why does passing a subroutine an undefined element in a hash create it?</A></H2>
<P>If you say something like:</P>
<PRE>
somefunc($hash{"nonesuch key here"});</PRE>
<P>Then that element ``autovivifies''; that is, it springs into existence
whether you store something there or not. That's because functions
get scalars passed in by reference. If <CODE>somefunc()</CODE> modifies <CODE>$_[0]</CODE>,
it has to be ready to write it back into the caller's version.</P>
<P>This has been fixed as of Perl5.004.</P>
<P>Normally, merely accessing a key's value for a nonexistent key does
<EM>not</EM> cause that key to be forever there. This is different than
awk's behavior.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i make the perl equivalent of a c structure/c++ class/hash or array of hashes or arrays">How can I make the Perl equivalent of a C structure/C++ class/hash or array of hashes or arrays?</A></H2>
<P>Usually a hash ref, perhaps like this:</P>
<PRE>
$record = {
NAME => "Jason",
EMPNO => 132,
TITLE => "deputy peon",
AGE => 23,
SALARY => 37_000,
PALS => [ "Norbert", "Rhys", "Phineas"],
};</PRE>
<P>References are documented in <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlref.html">the perlref manpage</A> and the upcoming <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlreftut.html">the perlreftut manpage</A>.
Examples of complex data structures are given in <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perldsc.html">the perldsc manpage</A> and
<A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perllol.html">the perllol manpage</A>. Examples of structures and object-oriented classes are
in <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perltoot.html">the perltoot manpage</A>.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how can i use a reference as a hash key">How can I use a reference as a hash key?</A></H2>
<P>You can't do this directly, but you could use the standard Tie::Refhash
module distributed with Perl.</P>
<P>
<HR>
<H1><A NAME="data: misc">Data: Misc</A></H1>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i handle binary data correctly">How do I handle binary data correctly?</A></H2>
<P>Perl is binary clean, so this shouldn't be a problem. For example,
this works fine (assuming the files are found):</P>
<PRE>
if (`cat /vmunix` =~ /gzip/) {
print "Your kernel is GNU-zip enabled!\n";
}</PRE>
<P>On less elegant (read: Byzantine) systems, however, you have
to play tedious games with ``text'' versus ``binary'' files. See
<A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#binmode">binmode in the perlfunc manpage</A> or <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlopentut.html">the perlopentut manpage</A>. Most of these ancient-thinking
systems are curses out of Microsoft, who seem to be committed to putting
the backward into backward compatibility.</P>
<P>If you're concerned about 8-bit ASCII data, then see <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perllocale.html">the perllocale manpage</A>.</P>
<P>If you want to deal with multibyte characters, however, there are
some gotchas. See the section on Regular Expressions.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i determine whether a scalar is a number/whole/integer/float">How do I determine whether a scalar is a number/whole/integer/float?</A></H2>
<P>Assuming that you don't care about IEEE notations like ``NaN'' or
``Infinity'', you probably just want to use a regular expression.</P>
<PRE>
if (/\D/) { print "has nondigits\n" }
if (/^\d+$/) { print "is a whole number\n" }
if (/^-?\d+$/) { print "is an integer\n" }
if (/^[+-]?\d+$/) { print "is a +/- integer\n" }
if (/^-?\d+\.?\d*$/) { print "is a real number\n" }
if (/^-?(?:\d+(?:\.\d*)?|\.\d+)$/) { print "is a decimal number" }
if (/^([+-]?)(?=\d|\.\d)\d*(\.\d*)?([Ee]([+-]?\d+))?$/)
{ print "a C float" }</PRE>
<P>If you're on a POSIX system, Perl's supports the <CODE>POSIX::strtod</CODE>
function. Its semantics are somewhat cumbersome, so here's a <CODE>getnum</CODE>
wrapper function for more convenient access. This function takes
a string and returns the number it found, or <A HREF="../../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_undef"><CODE>undef</CODE></A> for input that
isn't a C float. The <CODE>is_numeric</CODE> function is a front end to <CODE>getnum</CODE>
if you just want to say, ``Is this a float?''</P>
<PRE>
sub getnum {
use POSIX qw(strtod);
my $str = shift;
$str =~ s/^\s+//;
$str =~ s/\s+$//;
$! = 0;
my($num, $unparsed) = strtod($str);
if (($str eq '') || ($unparsed != 0) || $!) {
return undef;
} else {
return $num;
}
}</PRE>
<PRE>
sub is_numeric { defined getnum($_[0]) }</PRE>
<P>Or you could check out the String::Scanf module on CPAN instead. The
POSIX module (part of the standard Perl distribution) provides the
<CODE>strtol</CODE> and <CODE>strtod</CODE> for converting strings to double and longs,
respectively.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i keep persistent data across program calls">How do I keep persistent data across program calls?</A></H2>
<P>For some specific applications, you can use one of the DBM modules.
See <A HREF="../../lib/AnyDBM_File.html">the AnyDBM_File manpage</A>. More generically, you should consult the FreezeThaw,
Storable, or Class::Eroot modules from CPAN. Here's one example using
Storable's <CODE>store</CODE> and <CODE>retrieve</CODE> functions:</P>
<PRE>
use Storable;
store(\%hash, "filename");</PRE>
<PRE>
# later on...
$href = retrieve("filename"); # by ref
%hash = %{ retrieve("filename") }; # direct to hash</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i print out or copy a recursive data structure">How do I print out or copy a recursive data structure?</A></H2>
<P>The Data::Dumper module on CPAN (or the 5.005 release of Perl) is great
for printing out data structures. The Storable module, found on CPAN,
provides a function called <CODE>dclone</CODE> that recursively copies its argument.</P>
<PRE>
use Storable qw(dclone);
$r2 = dclone($r1);</PRE>
<P>Where $r1 can be a reference to any kind of data structure you'd like.
It will be deeply copied. Because <CODE>dclone</CODE> takes and returns references,
you'd have to add extra punctuation if you had a hash of arrays that
you wanted to copy.</P>
<PRE>
%newhash = %{ dclone(\%oldhash) };</PRE>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i define methods for every class/object">How do I define methods for every class/object?</A></H2>
<P>Use the UNIVERSAL class (see <A HREF="../../lib/UNIVERSAL.html">the UNIVERSAL manpage</A>).</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i verify a credit card checksum">How do I verify a credit card checksum?</A></H2>
<P>Get the Business::CreditCard module from CPAN.</P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="how do i pack arrays of doubles or floats for xs code">How do I pack arrays of doubles or floats for XS code?</A></H2>
<P>The kgbpack.c code in the PGPLOT module on CPAN does just this.
If you're doing a lot of float or double processing, consider using
the PDL module from CPAN instead--it makes number-crunching easy.</P>
<P>
<HR>
<H1><A NAME="author and copyright">AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT</A></H1>
<P>Copyright (c) 1997-1999 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
All rights reserved.</P>
<P>When included as part of the Standard Version of Perl, or as part of
its complete documentation whether printed or otherwise, this work
may be distributed only under the terms of Perl's Artistic License.
Any distribution of this file or derivatives thereof <EM>outside</EM>
of that package require that special arrangements be made with
copyright holder.</P>
<P>Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples in this file
are hereby placed into the public domain. You are permitted and
encouraged to use this code in your own programs for fun
or for profit as you see fit. A simple comment in the code giving
credit would be courteous but is not required.</P>
