perlcheat - Perl 5 Cheat Sheet

This 'cheat sheet' is a handy reference, meant for beginning Perl programmers. Not everything is mentioned, but 194 features may already be overwhelming.

  CONTEXTS  SIGILS             ARRAYS        HASHES
  void      $scalar   whole:   @array        %hash
  scalar    @array    slice:   @array[0, 2]  @hash{'a', 'b'}
  list      %hash     element: $array[0]     $hash{'a'}
            &sub
            *glob    SCALAR VALUES
                     number, string, reference, glob, undef
  REFERENCES
  \     references      $$foo[1]       aka $foo->[1]
  $@%&* dereference     $$foo{bar}     aka $foo->{bar}
  []    anon. arrayref  ${$$foo[1]}[2] aka $foo->[1]->[2]
  {}    anon. hashref   ${$$foo[1]}[2] aka $foo->[1][2]
  \()   list of refs
                          NUMBERS vs STRINGS  LINKS
  OPERATOR PRECEDENCE     =          =        perl.plover.com
  ->                      +          .        search.cpan.org
  ++ --                   == !=      eq ne         cpan.org
  **                      < > <= >=  lt gt le ge   pm.org
  ! ~ \ u+ u-             <=>        cmp           tpj.com
  =~ !~                                            perldoc.com
  * / % x                 SYNTAX
  + - .                   for    (LIST) { }, for (a;b;c) { }
  << >>                   while  ( ) { }, until ( ) { }
  named uops              if     ( ) { } elsif ( ) { } else { }
  < > <= >= lt gt le ge   unless ( ) { } elsif ( ) { } else { }
  == != <=> eq ne cmp     for equals foreach (ALWAYS)
  &
  | ^              REGEX METACHARS            REGEX MODIFIERS
  &&               ^     string begin         /i case insens.
  ||               $     str. end (before \n) /m line based ^$
  .. ...           +     one or more          /s . includes \n
  ?:               *     zero or more         /x ign. wh.space
  = += -= *= etc.  ?     zero or one          /g global
  , =>             {3,7} repeat in range
  list ops         ()    capture          REGEX CHARCLASSES
  not              (?:)  no capture       .  == [^\n]
  and              []    character class  \s == [\x20\f\t\r\n]
  or xor           |     alternation      \w == [A-Za-z0-9_]
                   \b    word boundary    \d == [0-9]
                   \z    string end       \S, \W and \D negate
  DO
  use strict;        DON'T            LINKS
  use warnings;      "$foo"           perl.com
  my $var;           $$variable_name  perlmonks.org
  open() or die $!;  `$userinput`     use.perl.org
  use Modules;       /$userinput/     perl.apache.org
                                      parrotcode.org
  FUNCTION RETURN LISTS
  stat      localtime    caller         SPECIAL VARIABLES
   0 dev    0 second     0 package      $_    default variable
   1 ino    1 minute     1 filename     $0    program name
   2 mode   2 hour       2 line         $/    input separator
   3 nlink  3 day        3 subroutine   $\    output separator
   4 uid    4 month-1    4 hasargs      $|    autoflush
   5 gid    5 year-1900  5 wantarray    $!    sys/libcall error
   6 rdev   6 weekday    6 evaltext     $@    eval error
   7 size   7 yearday    7 is_require   $$    process ID
   8 atime  8 is_dst     8 hints        $.    line number
   9 mtime               9 bitmask      @ARGV command line args
  10 ctime  just use                    @INC  include paths
  11 blksz  POSIX::      3..9 only      @_    subroutine args
  12 blcks  strftime!    with EXPR      %ENV  environment

The first version of this document appeared on Perl Monks, where several people had useful suggestions. Thank you, Perl Monks.

A special thanks to Damian Conway, who didn't only suggest important changes, but also took the time to count the number of listed features and make a Perl 6 version to show that Perl will stay Perl.

Juerd Waalboer <juerd@cpan.org>, with the help of many Perl Monks.

 http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=216602      the original PM post
 http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=238031      Damian Conway's Perl 6 version
 http://juerd.nl/site.plp/perlcheat        home of the Perl Cheat Sheet