source: trunk/essentials/dev-lang/perl/pod/perlop.pod@ 3310

=head1 NAME
X<operator>

perlop - Perl operators and precedence

=head1 DESCRIPTION

=head2 Operator Precedence and Associativity 
X<operator, precedence> X<precedence> X<associativity>

Operator precedence and associativity work in Perl more or less like
they do in mathematics.

I<Operator precedence> means some operators are evaluated before
others.  For example, in C<2 + 4 * 5>, the multiplication has higher
precedence so C<4 * 5> is evaluated first yielding C<2 + 20 ==
22> and not C<6 * 5 == 30>.

I<Operator associativity> defines what happens if a sequence of the
same operators is used one after another: whether the evaluator will
evaluate the left operations first or the right.  For example, in C<8
- 4 - 2>, subtraction is left associative so Perl evaluates the
expression left to right.  C<8 - 4> is evaluated first making the
expression C<4 - 2 == 2> and not C<8 - 2 == 6>.

Perl operators have the following associativity and precedence,
listed from highest precedence to lowest.  Operators borrowed from
C keep the same precedence relationship with each other, even where
C's precedence is slightly screwy.  (This makes learning Perl easier
for C folks.)  With very few exceptions, these all operate on scalar
values only, not array values.

    left        terms and list operators (leftward)
    left        ->
    nonassoc    ++ --
    right       **
    right       ! ~ \ and unary + and -
    left        =~ !~
    left        * / % x
    left        + - .
    left        << >>
    nonassoc    named unary operators
    nonassoc    < > <= >= lt gt le ge
    nonassoc    == != <=> eq ne cmp
    left        &
    left        | ^
    left        &&
    left        ||
    nonassoc    ..  ...
    right       ?:
    right       = += -= *= etc.
    left        , =>
    nonassoc    list operators (rightward)
    right       not
    left        and
    left        or xor

In the following sections, these operators are covered in precedence order.

Many operators can be overloaded for objects.  See L<overload>.

=head2 Terms and List Operators (Leftward)
X<list operator> X<operator, list> X<term>

A TERM has the highest precedence in Perl.  They include variables,
quote and quote-like operators, any expression in parentheses,
and any function whose arguments are parenthesized.  Actually, there
aren't really functions in this sense, just list operators and unary
operators behaving as functions because you put parentheses around
the arguments.  These are all documented in L<perlfunc>.

If any list operator (print(), etc.) or any unary operator (chdir(), etc.)
is followed by a left parenthesis as the next token, the operator and
arguments within parentheses are taken to be of highest precedence,
just like a normal function call.

In the absence of parentheses, the precedence of list operators such as
C<print>, C<sort>, or C<chmod> is either very high or very low depending on
whether you are looking at the left side or the right side of the operator.
For example, in

    @ary = (1, 3, sort 4, 2);
    print @ary;         # prints 1324

the commas on the right of the sort are evaluated before the sort,
but the commas on the left are evaluated after.  In other words,
list operators tend to gobble up all arguments that follow, and
then act like a simple TERM with regard to the preceding expression.
Be careful with parentheses:

    # These evaluate exit before doing the print:
    print($foo, exit);  # Obviously not what you want.
    print $foo, exit;   # Nor is this.

    # These do the print before evaluating exit:
    (print $foo), exit; # This is what you want.
    print($foo), exit;  # Or this.
    print ($foo), exit; # Or even this.

Also note that

    print ($foo & 255) + 1, "\n";

probably doesn't do what you expect at first glance.  The parentheses
enclose the argument list for C<print> which is evaluated (printing
the result of C<$foo & 255>).  Then one is added to the return value
of C<print> (usually 1).  The result is something like this:

    1 + 1, "\n";    # Obviously not what you meant.

To do what you meant properly, you must write:

    print(($foo & 255) + 1, "\n");

See L<Named Unary Operators> for more discussion of this.

Also parsed as terms are the C<do {}> and C<eval {}> constructs, as
well as subroutine and method calls, and the anonymous
constructors C<[]> and C<{}>.

See also L<Quote and Quote-like Operators> toward the end of this section,
as well as L<"I/O Operators">.

=head2 The Arrow Operator
X<arrow> X<dereference> X<< -> >>

"C<< -> >>" is an infix dereference operator, just as it is in C
and C++.  If the right side is either a C<[...]>, C<{...}>, or a
C<(...)> subscript, then the left side must be either a hard or
symbolic reference to an array, a hash, or a subroutine respectively.
(Or technically speaking, a location capable of holding a hard
reference, if it's an array or hash reference being used for
assignment.)  See L<perlreftut> and L<perlref>.

Otherwise, the right side is a method name or a simple scalar
variable containing either the method name or a subroutine reference,
and the left side must be either an object (a blessed reference)
or a class name (that is, a package name).  See L<perlobj>.

=head2 Auto-increment and Auto-decrement
X<increment> X<auto-increment> X<++> X<decrement> X<auto-decrement> X<-->

"++" and "--" work as in C.  That is, if placed before a variable,
they increment or decrement the variable by one before returning the
value, and if placed after, increment or decrement after returning the
value.

    $i = 0;  $j = 0;
    print $i++;  # prints 0
    print ++$j;  # prints 1

Note that just as in C, Perl doesn't define B<when> the variable is
incremented or decremented. You just know it will be done sometime 
before or after the value is returned. This also means that modifying
a variable twice in the same statement will lead to undefined behaviour.
Avoid statements like:

    $i = $i ++;
    print ++ $i + $i ++;

Perl will not guarantee what the result of the above statements is.

The auto-increment operator has a little extra builtin magic to it.  If
you increment a variable that is numeric, or that has ever been used in
a numeric context, you get a normal increment.  If, however, the
variable has been used in only string contexts since it was set, and
has a value that is not the empty string and matches the pattern
C</^[a-zA-Z]*[0-9]*\z/>, the increment is done as a string, preserving each
character within its range, with carry:

    print ++($foo = '99');      # prints '100'
    print ++($foo = 'a0');      # prints 'a1'
    print ++($foo = 'Az');      # prints 'Ba'
    print ++($foo = 'zz');      # prints 'aaa'

C<undef> is always treated as numeric, and in particular is changed
to C<0> before incrementing (so that a post-increment of an undef value
will return C<0> rather than C<undef>).

The auto-decrement operator is not magical.

=head2 Exponentiation
X<**> X<exponentiation> X<power>

Binary "**" is the exponentiation operator.  It binds even more
tightly than unary minus, so -2**4 is -(2**4), not (-2)**4. (This is
implemented using C's pow(3) function, which actually works on doubles
internally.)

=head2 Symbolic Unary Operators
X<unary operator> X<operator, unary>

Unary "!" performs logical negation, i.e., "not".  See also C<not> for a lower
precedence version of this.
X<!>

Unary "-" performs arithmetic negation if the operand is numeric.  If
the operand is an identifier, a string consisting of a minus sign
concatenated with the identifier is returned.  Otherwise, if the string
starts with a plus or minus, a string starting with the opposite sign
is returned.  One effect of these rules is that -bareword is equivalent
to the string "-bareword".  If, however, the string begins with a
non-alphabetic character (exluding "+" or "-"), Perl will attempt to convert
the string to a numeric and the arithmetic negation is performed. If the
string cannot be cleanly converted to a numeric, Perl will give the warning
B<Argument "the string" isn't numeric in negation (-) at ...>.
X<-> X<negation, arithmetic>

Unary "~" performs bitwise negation, i.e., 1's complement.  For
example, C<0666 & ~027> is 0640.  (See also L<Integer Arithmetic> and
L<Bitwise String Operators>.)  Note that the width of the result is
platform-dependent: ~0 is 32 bits wide on a 32-bit platform, but 64
bits wide on a 64-bit platform, so if you are expecting a certain bit
width, remember to use the & operator to mask off the excess bits.
X<~> X<negation, binary>

Unary "+" has no effect whatsoever, even on strings.  It is useful
syntactically for separating a function name from a parenthesized expression
that would otherwise be interpreted as the complete list of function
arguments.  (See examples above under L<Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.)
X<+>

Unary "\" creates a reference to whatever follows it.  See L<perlreftut>
and L<perlref>.  Do not confuse this behavior with the behavior of
backslash within a string, although both forms do convey the notion
of protecting the next thing from interpolation.
X<\> X<reference> X<backslash>

=head2 Binding Operators
X<binding> X<operator, binding> X<=~> X<!~>

Binary "=~" binds a scalar expression to a pattern match.  Certain operations
search or modify the string $_ by default.  This operator makes that kind
of operation work on some other string.  The right argument is a search
pattern, substitution, or transliteration.  The left argument is what is
supposed to be searched, substituted, or transliterated instead of the default
$_.  When used in scalar context, the return value generally indicates the
success of the operation.  Behavior in list context depends on the particular
operator.  See L</"Regexp Quote-Like Operators"> for details and 
L<perlretut> for examples using these operators.

If the right argument is an expression rather than a search pattern,
substitution, or transliteration, it is interpreted as a search pattern at run
time.

Binary "!~" is just like "=~" except the return value is negated in
the logical sense.

=head2 Multiplicative Operators
X<operator, multiplicative>

Binary "*" multiplies two numbers.
X<*>

Binary "/" divides two numbers.
X</> X<slash>

Binary "%" computes the modulus of two numbers.  Given integer
operands C<$a> and C<$b>: If C<$b> is positive, then C<$a % $b> is
C<$a> minus the largest multiple of C<$b> that is not greater than
C<$a>.  If C<$b> is negative, then C<$a % $b> is C<$a> minus the
smallest multiple of C<$b> that is not less than C<$a> (i.e. the
result will be less than or equal to zero). 
Note that when C<use integer> is in scope, "%" gives you direct access
to the modulus operator as implemented by your C compiler.  This
operator is not as well defined for negative operands, but it will
execute faster.
X<%> X<remainder> X<modulus> X<mod>

Binary "x" is the repetition operator.  In scalar context or if the left
operand is not enclosed in parentheses, it returns a string consisting
of the left operand repeated the number of times specified by the right
operand.  In list context, if the left operand is enclosed in
parentheses or is a list formed by C<qw/STRING/>, it repeats the list.
If the right operand is zero or negative, it returns an empty string
or an empty list, depending on the context.
X<x>

    print '-' x 80;             # print row of dashes

    print "\t" x ($tab/8), ' ' x ($tab%8);      # tab over

    @ones = (1) x 80;           # a list of 80 1's
    @ones = (5) x @ones;        # set all elements to 5


=head2 Additive Operators
X<operator, additive>

Binary "+" returns the sum of two numbers.
X<+>

Binary "-" returns the difference of two numbers.
X<->

Binary "." concatenates two strings.
X<string, concatenation> X<concatenation>
X<cat> X<concat> X<concatenate> X<.>

=head2 Shift Operators
X<shift operator> X<operator, shift> X<<< << >>>
X<<< >> >>> X<right shift> X<left shift> X<bitwise shift>
X<shl> X<shr> X<shift, right> X<shift, left>

Binary "<<" returns the value of its left argument shifted left by the
number of bits specified by the right argument.  Arguments should be
integers.  (See also L<Integer Arithmetic>.)

Binary ">>" returns the value of its left argument shifted right by
the number of bits specified by the right argument.  Arguments should
be integers.  (See also L<Integer Arithmetic>.)

Note that both "<<" and ">>" in Perl are implemented directly using
"<<" and ">>" in C.  If C<use integer> (see L<Integer Arithmetic>) is
in force then signed C integers are used, else unsigned C integers are
used.  Either way, the implementation isn't going to generate results
larger than the size of the integer type Perl was built with (32 bits
or 64 bits).

The result of overflowing the range of the integers is undefined
because it is undefined also in C.  In other words, using 32-bit
integers, C<< 1 << 32 >> is undefined.  Shifting by a negative number
of bits is also undefined.

=head2 Named Unary Operators
X<operator, named unary>

The various named unary operators are treated as functions with one
argument, with optional parentheses.

If any list operator (print(), etc.) or any unary operator (chdir(), etc.)
is followed by a left parenthesis as the next token, the operator and
arguments within parentheses are taken to be of highest precedence,
just like a normal function call.  For example,
because named unary operators are higher precedence than ||:

    chdir $foo    || die;       # (chdir $foo) || die
    chdir($foo)   || die;       # (chdir $foo) || die
    chdir ($foo)  || die;       # (chdir $foo) || die
    chdir +($foo) || die;       # (chdir $foo) || die

but, because * is higher precedence than named operators:

    chdir $foo * 20;    # chdir ($foo * 20)
    chdir($foo) * 20;   # (chdir $foo) * 20
    chdir ($foo) * 20;  # (chdir $foo) * 20
    chdir +($foo) * 20; # chdir ($foo * 20)

    rand 10 * 20;       # rand (10 * 20)
    rand(10) * 20;      # (rand 10) * 20
    rand (10) * 20;     # (rand 10) * 20
    rand +(10) * 20;    # rand (10 * 20)

Regarding precedence, the filetest operators, like C<-f>, C<-M>, etc. are
treated like named unary operators, but they don't follow this functional
parenthesis rule.  That means, for example, that C<-f($file).".bak"> is
equivalent to C<-f "$file.bak">.
X<-X> X<filetest> X<operator, filetest>

See also L<"Terms and List Operators (Leftward)">.

=head2 Relational Operators
X<relational operator> X<operator, relational>

Binary "<" returns true if the left argument is numerically less than
the right argument.
X<< < >>

Binary ">" returns true if the left argument is numerically greater
than the right argument.
X<< > >>

Binary "<=" returns true if the left argument is numerically less than
or equal to the right argument.
X<< <= >>

Binary ">=" returns true if the left argument is numerically greater
than or equal to the right argument.
X<< >= >>

Binary "lt" returns true if the left argument is stringwise less than
the right argument.
X<< lt >>

Binary "gt" returns true if the left argument is stringwise greater
than the right argument.
X<< gt >>

Binary "le" returns true if the left argument is stringwise less than
or equal to the right argument.
X<< le >>

Binary "ge" returns true if the left argument is stringwise greater
than or equal to the right argument.
X<< ge >>

=head2 Equality Operators
X<equality> X<equal> X<equals> X<operator, equality>

Binary "==" returns true if the left argument is numerically equal to
the right argument.
X<==>

Binary "!=" returns true if the left argument is numerically not equal
to the right argument.
X<!=>

Binary "<=>" returns -1, 0, or 1 depending on whether the left
argument is numerically less than, equal to, or greater than the right
argument.  If your platform supports NaNs (not-a-numbers) as numeric
values, using them with "<=>" returns undef.  NaN is not "<", "==", ">",
"<=" or ">=" anything (even NaN), so those 5 return false. NaN != NaN
returns true, as does NaN != anything else. If your platform doesn't
support NaNs then NaN is just a string with numeric value 0.
X<< <=> >> X<spaceship>

    perl -le '$a = "NaN"; print "No NaN support here" if $a == $a'
    perl -le '$a = "NaN"; print "NaN support here" if $a != $a'

Binary "eq" returns true if the left argument is stringwise equal to
the right argument.
X<eq>

Binary "ne" returns true if the left argument is stringwise not equal
to the right argument.
X<ne>

Binary "cmp" returns -1, 0, or 1 depending on whether the left
argument is stringwise less than, equal to, or greater than the right
argument.
X<cmp>

"lt", "le", "ge", "gt" and "cmp" use the collation (sort) order specified
by the current locale if C<use locale> is in effect.  See L<perllocale>.

=head2 Bitwise And
X<operator, bitwise, and> X<bitwise and> X<&>

Binary "&" returns its operands ANDed together bit by bit.
(See also L<Integer Arithmetic> and L<Bitwise String Operators>.)

Note that "&" has lower priority than relational operators, so for example
the brackets are essential in a test like

        print "Even\n" if ($x & 1) == 0;

=head2 Bitwise Or and Exclusive Or
X<operator, bitwise, or> X<bitwise or> X<|> X<operator, bitwise, xor>
X<bitwise xor> X<^>

Binary "|" returns its operands ORed together bit by bit.
(See also L<Integer Arithmetic> and L<Bitwise String Operators>.)

Binary "^" returns its operands XORed together bit by bit.
(See also L<Integer Arithmetic> and L<Bitwise String Operators>.)

Note that "|" and "^" have lower priority than relational operators, so
for example the brackets are essential in a test like

        print "false\n" if (8 | 2) != 10;

=head2 C-style Logical And
X<&&> X<logical and> X<operator, logical, and>

Binary "&&" performs a short-circuit logical AND operation.  That is,
if the left operand is false, the right operand is not even evaluated.
Scalar or list context propagates down to the right operand if it
is evaluated.

=head2 C-style Logical Or
X<||> X<operator, logical, or>

Binary "||" performs a short-circuit logical OR operation.  That is,
if the left operand is true, the right operand is not even evaluated.
Scalar or list context propagates down to the right operand if it
is evaluated.

The C<||> and C<&&> operators return the last value evaluated
(unlike C's C<||> and C<&&>, which return 0 or 1). Thus, a reasonably
portable way to find out the home directory might be:

    $home = $ENV{'HOME'} || $ENV{'LOGDIR'} ||
        (getpwuid($<))[7] || die "You're homeless!\n";

In particular, this means that you shouldn't use this
for selecting between two aggregates for assignment:

    @a = @b || @c;              # this is wrong
    @a = scalar(@b) || @c;      # really meant this
    @a = @b ? @b : @c;          # this works fine, though

As more readable alternatives to C<&&> and C<||> when used for
control flow, Perl provides C<and> and C<or> operators (see below).
The short-circuit behavior is identical.  The precedence of "and" and
"or" is much lower, however, so that you can safely use them after a
list operator without the need for parentheses:

    unlink "alpha", "beta", "gamma"
            or gripe(), next LINE;

With the C-style operators that would have been written like this:

    unlink("alpha", "beta", "gamma")
            || (gripe(), next LINE);

Using "or" for assignment is unlikely to do what you want; see below.

=head2 Range Operators
X<operator, range> X<range> X<..> X<...>

Binary ".." is the range operator, which is really two different
operators depending on the context.  In list context, it returns a
list of values counting (up by ones) from the left value to the right
value.  If the left value is greater than the right value then it
returns the empty list.  The range operator is useful for writing
C<foreach (1..10)> loops and for doing slice operations on arrays. In
the current implementation, no temporary array is created when the
range operator is used as the expression in C<foreach> loops, but older
versions of Perl might burn a lot of memory when you write something
like this:

    for (1 .. 1_000_000) {
        # code
    }

The range operator also works on strings, using the magical auto-increment,
see below.

In scalar context, ".." returns a boolean value.  The operator is
bistable, like a flip-flop, and emulates the line-range (comma) operator
of B<sed>, B<awk>, and various editors.  Each ".." operator maintains its
own boolean state.  It is false as long as its left operand is false.
Once the left operand is true, the range operator stays true until the
right operand is true, I<AFTER> which the range operator becomes false
again.  It doesn't become false till the next time the range operator is
evaluated.  It can test the right operand and become false on the same
evaluation it became true (as in B<awk>), but it still returns true once.
If you don't want it to test the right operand till the next
evaluation, as in B<sed>, just use three dots ("...") instead of
two.  In all other regards, "..." behaves just like ".." does.

The right operand is not evaluated while the operator is in the
"false" state, and the left operand is not evaluated while the
operator is in the "true" state.  The precedence is a little lower
than || and &&.  The value returned is either the empty string for
false, or a sequence number (beginning with 1) for true.  The
sequence number is reset for each range encountered.  The final
sequence number in a range has the string "E0" appended to it, which
doesn't affect its numeric value, but gives you something to search
for if you want to exclude the endpoint.  You can exclude the
beginning point by waiting for the sequence number to be greater
than 1.

If either operand of scalar ".." is a constant expression,
that operand is considered true if it is equal (C<==>) to the current
input line number (the C<$.> variable).

To be pedantic, the comparison is actually C<int(EXPR) == int(EXPR)>,
but that is only an issue if you use a floating point expression; when
implicitly using C<$.> as described in the previous paragraph, the
comparison is C<int(EXPR) == int($.)> which is only an issue when C<$.>
is set to a floating point value and you are not reading from a file.
Furthermore, C<"span" .. "spat"> or C<2.18 .. 3.14> will not do what
you want in scalar context because each of the operands are evaluated
using their integer representation.

Examples:

As a scalar operator:

    if (101 .. 200) { print; } # print 2nd hundred lines, short for
                               #   if ($. == 101 .. $. == 200) ...

    next LINE if (1 .. /^$/);  # skip header lines, short for
                               #   ... if ($. == 1 .. /^$/);
                               # (typically in a loop labeled LINE)

    s/^/> / if (/^$/ .. eof());  # quote body

    # parse mail messages
    while (<>) {
        $in_header =   1  .. /^$/;
        $in_body   = /^$/ .. eof;
        if ($in_header) {
            # ...
        } else { # in body
            # ...
        }
    } continue {
        close ARGV if eof;             # reset $. each file
    }

Here's a simple example to illustrate the difference between
the two range operators:

    @lines = ("   - Foo",
              "01 - Bar",
              "1  - Baz",
              "   - Quux");

    foreach (@lines) {
        if (/0/ .. /1/) {
            print "$_\n";
        }
    }

This program will print only the line containing "Bar". If
the range operator is changed to C<...>, it will also print the
"Baz" line.

And now some examples as a list operator:

    for (101 .. 200) { print; } # print $_ 100 times
    @foo = @foo[0 .. $#foo];    # an expensive no-op
    @foo = @foo[$#foo-4 .. $#foo];      # slice last 5 items

The range operator (in list context) makes use of the magical
auto-increment algorithm if the operands are strings.  You
can say

    @alphabet = ('A' .. 'Z');

to get all normal letters of the English alphabet, or

    $hexdigit = (0 .. 9, 'a' .. 'f')[$num & 15];

to get a hexadecimal digit, or

    @z2 = ('01' .. '31');  print $z2[$mday];

to get dates with leading zeros.  If the final value specified is not
in the sequence that the magical increment would produce, the sequence
goes until the next value would be longer than the final value
specified.

Because each operand is evaluated in integer form, C<2.18 .. 3.14> will
return two elements in list context.

    @list = (2.18 .. 3.14); # same as @list = (2 .. 3);

=head2 Conditional Operator
X<operator, conditional> X<operator, ternary> X<ternary> X<?:>

Ternary "?:" is the conditional operator, just as in C.  It works much
like an if-then-else.  If the argument before the ? is true, the
argument before the : is returned, otherwise the argument after the :
is returned.  For example:

    printf "I have %d dog%s.\n", $n,
            ($n == 1) ? '' : "s";

Scalar or list context propagates downward into the 2nd
or 3rd argument, whichever is selected.

    $a = $ok ? $b : $c;  # get a scalar
    @a = $ok ? @b : @c;  # get an array
    $a = $ok ? @b : @c;  # oops, that's just a count!

The operator may be assigned to if both the 2nd and 3rd arguments are
legal lvalues (meaning that you can assign to them):

    ($a_or_b ? $a : $b) = $c;

Because this operator produces an assignable result, using assignments
without parentheses will get you in trouble.  For example, this:

    $a % 2 ? $a += 10 : $a += 2

Really means this:

    (($a % 2) ? ($a += 10) : $a) += 2

Rather than this:

    ($a % 2) ? ($a += 10) : ($a += 2)

That should probably be written more simply as:

    $a += ($a % 2) ? 10 : 2;

=head2 Assignment Operators
X<assignment> X<operator, assignment> X<=> X<**=> X<+=> X<*=> X<&=>
X<<< <<= >>> X<&&=> X<-=> X</=> X<|=> X<<< >>= >>> X<||=> X<.=>
X<%=> X<^=> X<x=>

"=" is the ordinary assignment operator.

Assignment operators work as in C.  That is,

    $a += 2;

is equivalent to

    $a = $a + 2;

although without duplicating any side effects that dereferencing the lvalue
might trigger, such as from tie().  Other assignment operators work similarly.
The following are recognized:

    **=    +=    *=    &=    <<=    &&=
           -=    /=    |=    >>=    ||=
           .=    %=    ^=
                 x=

Although these are grouped by family, they all have the precedence
of assignment.

Unlike in C, the scalar assignment operator produces a valid lvalue.
Modifying an assignment is equivalent to doing the assignment and
then modifying the variable that was assigned to.  This is useful
for modifying a copy of something, like this:

    ($tmp = $global) =~ tr [A-Z] [a-z];

Likewise,

    ($a += 2) *= 3;

is equivalent to

    $a += 2;
    $a *= 3;

Similarly, a list assignment in list context produces the list of
lvalues assigned to, and a list assignment in scalar context returns
the number of elements produced by the expression on the right hand
side of the assignment.

=head2 Comma Operator
X<comma> X<operator, comma> X<,>

Binary "," is the comma operator.  In scalar context it evaluates
its left argument, throws that value away, then evaluates its right
argument and returns that value.  This is just like C's comma operator.

In list context, it's just the list argument separator, and inserts
both its arguments into the list.

The C<< => >> operator is a synonym for the comma, but forces any word
(consisting entirely of word characters) to its left to be interpreted
as a string (as of 5.001).  This includes words that might otherwise be
considered a constant or function call.

    use constant FOO => "something";

    my %h = ( FOO => 23 );

is equivalent to:

    my %h = ("FOO", 23);

It is I<NOT>:

    my %h = ("something", 23);

If the argument on the left is not a word, it is first interpreted as
an expression, and then the string value of that is used.

The C<< => >> operator is helpful in documenting the correspondence
between keys and values in hashes, and other paired elements in lists.

        %hash = ( $key => $value );
        login( $username => $password );

=head2 List Operators (Rightward)
X<operator, list, rightward> X<list operator>

On the right side of a list operator, it has very low precedence,
such that it controls all comma-separated expressions found there.
The only operators with lower precedence are the logical operators
"and", "or", and "not", which may be used to evaluate calls to list
operators without the need for extra parentheses:

    open HANDLE, "filename"
        or die "Can't open: $!\n";

See also discussion of list operators in L<Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.

=head2 Logical Not
X<operator, logical, not> X<not>

Unary "not" returns the logical negation of the expression to its right.
It's the equivalent of "!" except for the very low precedence.

=head2 Logical And
X<operator, logical, and> X<and>

Binary "and" returns the logical conjunction of the two surrounding
expressions.  It's equivalent to && except for the very low
precedence.  This means that it short-circuits: i.e., the right
expression is evaluated only if the left expression is true.

=head2 Logical or and Exclusive Or
X<operator, logical, or> X<operator, logical, xor> X<operator, logical, err>
X<operator, logical, defined or> X<operator, logical, exclusive or>
X<or> X<xor> X<err>

Binary "or" returns the logical disjunction of the two surrounding
expressions.  It's equivalent to || except for the very low precedence.
This makes it useful for control flow

    print FH $data              or die "Can't write to FH: $!";

This means that it short-circuits: i.e., the right expression is evaluated
only if the left expression is false.  Due to its precedence, you should
probably avoid using this for assignment, only for control flow.

    $a = $b or $c;              # bug: this is wrong
    ($a = $b) or $c;            # really means this
    $a = $b || $c;              # better written this way

However, when it's a list-context assignment and you're trying to use
"||" for control flow, you probably need "or" so that the assignment
takes higher precedence.

    @info = stat($file) || die;     # oops, scalar sense of stat!
    @info = stat($file) or die;     # better, now @info gets its due

Then again, you could always use parentheses. 

Binary "xor" returns the exclusive-OR of the two surrounding expressions.
It cannot short circuit, of course.

=head2 C Operators Missing From Perl
X<operator, missing from perl> X<&> X<*>
X<typecasting> X<(TYPE)>

Here is what C has that Perl doesn't:

=over 8

=item unary &

Address-of operator.  (But see the "\" operator for taking a reference.)

=item unary *

Dereference-address operator. (Perl's prefix dereferencing
operators are typed: $, @, %, and &.)

=item (TYPE)

Type-casting operator.

=back

=head2 Quote and Quote-like Operators
X<operator, quote> X<operator, quote-like> X<q> X<qq> X<qx> X<qw> X<m> 
X<qr> X<s> X<tr> X<'> X<''> X<"> X<""> X<//> X<`> X<``> X<<< << >>>
X<escape sequence> X<escape>


While we usually think of quotes as literal values, in Perl they
function as operators, providing various kinds of interpolating and
pattern matching capabilities.  Perl provides customary quote characters
for these behaviors, but also provides a way for you to choose your
quote character for any of them.  In the following table, a C<{}> represents
any pair of delimiters you choose.

    Customary  Generic        Meaning        Interpolates
        ''       q{}          Literal             no
        ""      qq{}          Literal             yes
        ``      qx{}          Command             yes*
                qw{}         Word list            no
        //       m{}       Pattern match          yes*
                qr{}          Pattern             yes*
                 s{}{}      Substitution          yes*
                tr{}{}    Transliteration         no (but see below)
        <<EOF                 here-doc            yes*

        * unless the delimiter is ''.

Non-bracketing delimiters use the same character fore and aft, but the four
sorts of brackets (round, angle, square, curly) will all nest, which means
that

        q{foo{bar}baz}

is the same as

        'foo{bar}baz'

Note, however, that this does not always work for quoting Perl code:

        $s = q{ if($a eq "}") ... }; # WRONG

is a syntax error. The C<Text::Balanced> module (from CPAN, and
starting from Perl 5.8 part of the standard distribution) is able
to do this properly.

There can be whitespace between the operator and the quoting
characters, except when C<#> is being used as the quoting character.
C<q#foo#> is parsed as the string C<foo>, while C<q #foo#> is the
operator C<q> followed by a comment.  Its argument will be taken
from the next line.  This allows you to write:

    s {foo}  # Replace foo
      {bar}  # with bar.

The following escape sequences are available in constructs that interpolate
and in transliterations.
X<\t> X<\n> X<\r> X<\f> X<\b> X<\a> X<\e> X<\x> X<\0> X<\c> X<\N>

    \t          tab             (HT, TAB)
    \n          newline         (NL)
    \r          return          (CR)
    \f          form feed       (FF)
    \b          backspace       (BS)
    \a          alarm (bell)    (BEL)
    \e          escape          (ESC)
    \033        octal char      (ESC)
    \x1b        hex char        (ESC)
    \x{263a}    wide hex char   (SMILEY)
    \c[         control char    (ESC)
    \N{name}    named Unicode character

B<NOTE>: Unlike C and other languages, Perl has no \v escape sequence for
the vertical tab (VT - ASCII 11).

The following escape sequences are available in constructs that interpolate
but not in transliterations.
X<\l> X<\u> X<\L> X<\U> X<\E> X<\Q>

    \l          lowercase next char
    \u          uppercase next char
    \L          lowercase till \E
    \U          uppercase till \E
    \E          end case modification
    \Q          quote non-word characters till \E

If C<use locale> is in effect, the case map used by C<\l>, C<\L>,
C<\u> and C<\U> is taken from the current locale.  See L<perllocale>.
If Unicode (for example, C<\N{}> or wide hex characters of 0x100 or
beyond) is being used, the case map used by C<\l>, C<\L>, C<\u> and
C<\U> is as defined by Unicode.  For documentation of C<\N{name}>,
see L<charnames>.

All systems use the virtual C<"\n"> to represent a line terminator,
called a "newline".  There is no such thing as an unvarying, physical
newline character.  It is only an illusion that the operating system,
device drivers, C libraries, and Perl all conspire to preserve.  Not all
systems read C<"\r"> as ASCII CR and C<"\n"> as ASCII LF.  For example,
on a Mac, these are reversed, and on systems without line terminator,
printing C<"\n"> may emit no actual data.  In general, use C<"\n"> when
you mean a "newline" for your system, but use the literal ASCII when you
need an exact character.  For example, most networking protocols expect
and prefer a CR+LF (C<"\015\012"> or C<"\cM\cJ">) for line terminators,
and although they often accept just C<"\012">, they seldom tolerate just
C<"\015">.  If you get in the habit of using C<"\n"> for networking,
you may be burned some day.
X<newline> X<line terminator> X<eol> X<end of line>
X<\n> X<\r> X<\r\n>

For constructs that do interpolate, variables beginning with "C<$>"
or "C<@>" are interpolated.  Subscripted variables such as C<$a[3]> or
C<< $href->{key}[0] >> are also interpolated, as are array and hash slices.
But method calls such as C<< $obj->meth >> are not.

Interpolating an array or slice interpolates the elements in order,
separated by the value of C<$">, so is equivalent to interpolating
C<join $", @array>.    "Punctuation" arrays such as C<@+> are only
interpolated if the name is enclosed in braces C<@{+}>.

You cannot include a literal C<$> or C<@> within a C<\Q> sequence. 
An unescaped C<$> or C<@> interpolates the corresponding variable, 
while escaping will cause the literal string C<\$> to be inserted.
You'll need to write something like C<m/\Quser\E\@\Qhost/>. 

Patterns are subject to an additional level of interpretation as a
regular expression.  This is done as a second pass, after variables are
interpolated, so that regular expressions may be incorporated into the
pattern from the variables.  If this is not what you want, use C<\Q> to
interpolate a variable literally.

Apart from the behavior described above, Perl does not expand
multiple levels of interpolation.  In particular, contrary to the
expectations of shell programmers, back-quotes do I<NOT> interpolate
within double quotes, nor do single quotes impede evaluation of
variables when used within double quotes.

=head2 Regexp Quote-Like Operators
X<operator, regexp>

Here are the quote-like operators that apply to pattern
matching and related activities.

=over 8

=item ?PATTERN?
X<?>

This is just like the C</pattern/> search, except that it matches only
once between calls to the reset() operator.  This is a useful
optimization when you want to see only the first occurrence of
something in each file of a set of files, for instance.  Only C<??>
patterns local to the current package are reset.

    while (<>) {
        if (?^$?) {
                            # blank line between header and body
        }
    } continue {
        reset if eof;       # clear ?? status for next file
    }

This usage is vaguely deprecated, which means it just might possibly
be removed in some distant future version of Perl, perhaps somewhere
around the year 2168.

=item m/PATTERN/cgimosx
X<m> X<operator, match> 
X<regexp, options> X<regexp> X<regex, options> X<regex> 
X</c> X</i> X</m> X</o> X</s> X</x>

=item /PATTERN/cgimosx

Searches a string for a pattern match, and in scalar context returns
true if it succeeds, false if it fails.  If no string is specified
via the C<=~> or C<!~> operator, the $_ string is searched.  (The
string specified with C<=~> need not be an lvalue--it may be the
result of an expression evaluation, but remember the C<=~> binds
rather tightly.)  See also L<perlre>.  See L<perllocale> for
discussion of additional considerations that apply when C<use locale>
is in effect.

Options are:

    c   Do not reset search position on a failed match when /g is in effect.
    g   Match globally, i.e., find all occurrences.
    i   Do case-insensitive pattern matching.
    m   Treat string as multiple lines.
    o   Compile pattern only once.
    s   Treat string as single line.
    x   Use extended regular expressions.

If "/" is the delimiter then the initial C<m> is optional.  With the C<m>
you can use any pair of non-alphanumeric, non-whitespace characters 
as delimiters.  This is particularly useful for matching path names
that contain "/", to avoid LTS (leaning toothpick syndrome).  If "?" is
the delimiter, then the match-only-once rule of C<?PATTERN?> applies.
If "'" is the delimiter, no interpolation is performed on the PATTERN.

PATTERN may contain variables, which will be interpolated (and the
pattern recompiled) every time the pattern search is evaluated, except
for when the delimiter is a single quote.  (Note that C<$(>, C<$)>, and
C<$|> are not interpolated because they look like end-of-string tests.)
If you want such a pattern to be compiled only once, add a C</o> after
the trailing delimiter.  This avoids expensive run-time recompilations,
and is useful when the value you are interpolating won't change over
the life of the script.  However, mentioning C</o> constitutes a promise
that you won't change the variables in the pattern.  If you change them,
Perl won't even notice.  See also L<"qr/STRING/imosx">.

If the PATTERN evaluates to the empty string, the last
I<successfully> matched regular expression is used instead. In this
case, only the C<g> and C<c> flags on the empty pattern is honoured -
the other flags are taken from the original pattern. If no match has
previously succeeded, this will (silently) act instead as a genuine
empty pattern (which will always match).

If the C</g> option is not used, C<m//> in list context returns a
list consisting of the subexpressions matched by the parentheses in the
pattern, i.e., (C<$1>, C<$2>, C<$3>...).  (Note that here C<$1> etc. are
also set, and that this differs from Perl 4's behavior.)  When there are
no parentheses in the pattern, the return value is the list C<(1)> for
success.  With or without parentheses, an empty list is returned upon
failure.

Examples:

    open(TTY, '/dev/tty');
    <TTY> =~ /^y/i && foo();    # do foo if desired

    if (/Version: *([0-9.]*)/) { $version = $1; }

    next if m#^/usr/spool/uucp#;

    # poor man's grep
    $arg = shift;
    while (<>) {
        print if /$arg/o;       # compile only once
    }

    if (($F1, $F2, $Etc) = ($foo =~ /^(\S+)\s+(\S+)\s*(.*)/))

This last example splits $foo into the first two words and the
remainder of the line, and assigns those three fields to $F1, $F2, and
$Etc.  The conditional is true if any variables were assigned, i.e., if
the pattern matched.

The C</g> modifier specifies global pattern matching--that is,
matching as many times as possible within the string.  How it behaves
depends on the context.  In list context, it returns a list of the
substrings matched by any capturing parentheses in the regular
expression.  If there are no parentheses, it returns a list of all
the matched strings, as if there were parentheses around the whole
pattern.

In scalar context, each execution of C<m//g> finds the next match,
returning true if it matches, and false if there is no further match.
The position after the last match can be read or set using the pos()
function; see L<perlfunc/pos>.   A failed match normally resets the
search position to the beginning of the string, but you can avoid that
by adding the C</c> modifier (e.g. C<m//gc>).  Modifying the target
string also resets the search position.

You can intermix C<m//g> matches with C<m/\G.../g>, where C<\G> is a
zero-width assertion that matches the exact position where the previous
C<m//g>, if any, left off.  Without the C</g> modifier, the C<\G> assertion
still anchors at pos(), but the match is of course only attempted once.
Using C<\G> without C</g> on a target string that has not previously had a
C</g> match applied to it is the same as using the C<\A> assertion to match
the beginning of the string.  Note also that, currently, C<\G> is only
properly supported when anchored at the very beginning of the pattern.

Examples:

    # list context
    ($one,$five,$fifteen) = (`uptime` =~ /(\d+\.\d+)/g);

    # scalar context
    $/ = "";
    while (defined($paragraph = <>)) {
        while ($paragraph =~ /[a-z]['")]*[.!?]+['")]*\s/g) {
            $sentences++;
        }
    }
    print "$sentences\n";

    # using m//gc with \G
    $_ = "ppooqppqq";
    while ($i++ < 2) {
        print "1: '";
        print $1 while /(o)/gc; print "', pos=", pos, "\n";
        print "2: '";
        print $1 if /\G(q)/gc;  print "', pos=", pos, "\n";
        print "3: '";
        print $1 while /(p)/gc; print "', pos=", pos, "\n";
    }
    print "Final: '$1', pos=",pos,"\n" if /\G(.)/;

The last example should print:

    1: 'oo', pos=4
    2: 'q', pos=5
    3: 'pp', pos=7
    1: '', pos=7
    2: 'q', pos=8
    3: '', pos=8
    Final: 'q', pos=8

Notice that the final match matched C<q> instead of C<p>, which a match
without the C<\G> anchor would have done. Also note that the final match
did not update C<pos> -- C<pos> is only updated on a C</g> match. If the
final match did indeed match C<p>, it's a good bet that you're running an
older (pre-5.6.0) Perl.

A useful idiom for C<lex>-like scanners is C</\G.../gc>.  You can
combine several regexps like this to process a string part-by-part,
doing different actions depending on which regexp matched.  Each
regexp tries to match where the previous one leaves off.

 $_ = <<'EOL';
      $url = new URI::URL "http://www/";   die if $url eq "xXx";
 EOL
 LOOP:
    {
      print(" digits"),         redo LOOP if /\G\d+\b[,.;]?\s*/gc;
      print(" lowercase"),      redo LOOP if /\G[a-z]+\b[,.;]?\s*/gc;
      print(" UPPERCASE"),      redo LOOP if /\G[A-Z]+\b[,.;]?\s*/gc;
      print(" Capitalized"),    redo LOOP if /\G[A-Z][a-z]+\b[,.;]?\s*/gc;
      print(" MiXeD"),          redo LOOP if /\G[A-Za-z]+\b[,.;]?\s*/gc;
      print(" alphanumeric"),   redo LOOP if /\G[A-Za-z0-9]+\b[,.;]?\s*/gc;
      print(" line-noise"),     redo LOOP if /\G[^A-Za-z0-9]+/gc;
      print ". That's all!\n";
    }

Here is the output (split into several lines):

 line-noise lowercase line-noise lowercase UPPERCASE line-noise
 UPPERCASE line-noise lowercase line-noise lowercase line-noise
 lowercase lowercase line-noise lowercase lowercase line-noise
 MiXeD line-noise. That's all!

=item q/STRING/
X<q> X<quote, double> X<'> X<''>

=item C<'STRING'>

A single-quoted, literal string.  A backslash represents a backslash
unless followed by the delimiter or another backslash, in which case
the delimiter or backslash is interpolated.

    $foo = q!I said, "You said, 'She said it.'"!;
    $bar = q('This is it.');
    $baz = '\n';                # a two-character string

=item qq/STRING/
X<qq> X<quote, double> X<"> X<"">

=item "STRING"

A double-quoted, interpolated string.

    $_ .= qq
     (*** The previous line contains the naughty word "$1".\n)
                if /\b(tcl|java|python)\b/i;      # :-)
    $baz = "\n";                # a one-character string

=item qr/STRING/imosx
X<qr> X</i> X</m> X</o> X</s> X</x>

This operator quotes (and possibly compiles) its I<STRING> as a regular
expression.  I<STRING> is interpolated the same way as I<PATTERN>
in C<m/PATTERN/>.  If "'" is used as the delimiter, no interpolation
is done.  Returns a Perl value which may be used instead of the
corresponding C</STRING/imosx> expression.

For example,

    $rex = qr/my.STRING/is;
    s/$rex/foo/;

is equivalent to

    s/my.STRING/foo/is;

The result may be used as a subpattern in a match:

    $re = qr/$pattern/;
    $string =~ /foo${re}bar/;   # can be interpolated in other patterns
    $string =~ $re;             # or used standalone
    $string =~ /$re/;           # or this way

Since Perl may compile the pattern at the moment of execution of qr()
operator, using qr() may have speed advantages in some situations,
notably if the result of qr() is used standalone:

    sub match {
        my $patterns = shift;
        my @compiled = map qr/$_/i, @$patterns;
        grep {
            my $success = 0;
            foreach my $pat (@compiled) {
                $success = 1, last if /$pat/;
            }
            $success;
        } @_;
    }

Precompilation of the pattern into an internal representation at
the moment of qr() avoids a need to recompile the pattern every
time a match C</$pat/> is attempted.  (Perl has many other internal
optimizations, but none would be triggered in the above example if
we did not use qr() operator.)

Options are:

    i   Do case-insensitive pattern matching.
    m   Treat string as multiple lines.
    o   Compile pattern only once.
    s   Treat string as single line.
    x   Use extended regular expressions.

See L<perlre> for additional information on valid syntax for STRING, and
for a detailed look at the semantics of regular expressions.

=item qx/STRING/
X<qx> X<`> X<``> X<backtick>

=item `STRING`

A string which is (possibly) interpolated and then executed as a
system command with C</bin/sh> or its equivalent.  Shell wildcards,
pipes, and redirections will be honored.  The collected standard
output of the command is returned; standard error is unaffected.  In
scalar context, it comes back as a single (potentially multi-line)
string, or undef if the command failed.  In list context, returns a
list of lines (however you've defined lines with $/ or
$INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR), or an empty list if the command failed.

Because backticks do not affect standard error, use shell file descriptor
syntax (assuming the shell supports this) if you care to address this.
To capture a command's STDERR and STDOUT together:

    $output = `cmd 2>&1`;

To capture a command's STDOUT but discard its STDERR:

    $output = `cmd 2>/dev/null`;

To capture a command's STDERR but discard its STDOUT (ordering is
important here):

    $output = `cmd 2>&1 1>/dev/null`;

To exchange a command's STDOUT and STDERR in order to capture the STDERR
but leave its STDOUT to come out the old STDERR:

    $output = `cmd 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 3>&-`;

To read both a command's STDOUT and its STDERR separately, it's easiest
to redirect them separately to files, and then read from those files
when the program is done:

    system("program args 1>program.stdout 2>program.stderr");

Using single-quote as a delimiter protects the command from Perl's
double-quote interpolation, passing it on to the shell instead:

    $perl_info  = qx(ps $$);            # that's Perl's $$
    $shell_info = qx'ps $$';            # that's the new shell's $$

How that string gets evaluated is entirely subject to the command
interpreter on your system.  On most platforms, you will have to protect
shell metacharacters if you want them treated literally.  This is in
practice difficult to do, as it's unclear how to escape which characters.
See L<perlsec> for a clean and safe example of a manual fork() and exec()
to emulate backticks safely.

On some platforms (notably DOS-like ones), the shell may not be
capable of dealing with multiline commands, so putting newlines in
the string may not get you what you want.  You may be able to evaluate
multiple commands in a single line by separating them with the command
separator character, if your shell supports that (e.g. C<;> on many Unix
shells; C<&> on the Windows NT C<cmd> shell).

Beginning with v5.6.0, Perl will attempt to flush all files opened for
output before starting the child process, but this may not be supported
on some platforms (see L<perlport>).  To be safe, you may need to set
C<$|> ($AUTOFLUSH in English) or call the C<autoflush()> method of
C<IO::Handle> on any open handles.

Beware that some command shells may place restrictions on the length
of the command line.  You must ensure your strings don't exceed this
limit after any necessary interpolations.  See the platform-specific
release notes for more details about your particular environment.

Using this operator can lead to programs that are difficult to port,
because the shell commands called vary between systems, and may in
fact not be present at all.  As one example, the C<type> command under
the POSIX shell is very different from the C<type> command under DOS.
That doesn't mean you should go out of your way to avoid backticks
when they're the right way to get something done.  Perl was made to be
a glue language, and one of the things it glues together is commands.
Just understand what you're getting yourself into.

See L<"I/O Operators"> for more discussion.

=item qw/STRING/
X<qw> X<quote, list> X<quote, words>

Evaluates to a list of the words extracted out of STRING, using embedded
whitespace as the word delimiters.  It can be understood as being roughly
equivalent to:

    split(' ', q/STRING/);

the differences being that it generates a real list at compile time, and
in scalar context it returns the last element in the list.  So
this expression:

    qw(foo bar baz)

is semantically equivalent to the list:

    'foo', 'bar', 'baz'

Some frequently seen examples:

    use POSIX qw( setlocale localeconv )
    @EXPORT = qw( foo bar baz );

A common mistake is to try to separate the words with comma or to
put comments into a multi-line C<qw>-string.  For this reason, the
C<use warnings> pragma and the B<-w> switch (that is, the C<$^W> variable) 
produces warnings if the STRING contains the "," or the "#" character.

=item s/PATTERN/REPLACEMENT/egimosx
X<substitute> X<substitution> X<replace> X<regexp, replace>
X<regexp, substitute> X</e> X</g> X</i> X</m> X</o> X</s> X</x>

Searches a string for a pattern, and if found, replaces that pattern
with the replacement text and returns the number of substitutions
made.  Otherwise it returns false (specifically, the empty string).

If no string is specified via the C<=~> or C<!~> operator, the C<$_>
variable is searched and modified.  (The string specified with C<=~> must
be scalar variable, an array element, a hash element, or an assignment
to one of those, i.e., an lvalue.)

If the delimiter chosen is a single quote, no interpolation is
done on either the PATTERN or the REPLACEMENT.  Otherwise, if the
PATTERN contains a $ that looks like a variable rather than an
end-of-string test, the variable will be interpolated into the pattern