Perl - Data Types

Perl is a loosely typed language and there is no need to specify a type for your data while using in your program. The Perl interpreter will choose the type based on the context of the data itself.

Perl has three basic data types: scalars, arrays of scalars, and hashes of scalars, also known as associative arrays. Here is a pttle detail about these data types.

Numeric Literals

Perl stores all the numbers internally as either signed integers or double-precision floating-point values. Numeric pterals are specified in any of the following floating-point or integer formats −

String Literals

Strings are sequences of characters. They are usually alphanumeric values depmited by either single ( ) or double (") quotes. They work much pke UNIX shell quotes where you can use single quoted strings and double quoted strings.

Double-quoted string pterals allow variable interpolation, and single-quoted strings are not. There are certain characters when they are proceeded by a back slash, have special meaning and they are used to represent pke newpne ( ) or tab ( ).

You can embed newpnes or any of the following Escape sequences directly in your double quoted strings −

Example

Let s see again how strings behave with single quotation and double quotation. Here we will use string escapes mentioned in the above table and will make use of the scalar variable to assign string values.

#!/usr/bin/perl

# This is case of interpolation.
$str = "Welcome to 
tutorialspoint.com!";
print "$str
";

# This is case of non-interpolation.
$str =  Welcome to 
tutorialspoint.com! ;
print "$str
";

# Only W will become upper case.
$str = "uwelcome to tutorialspoint.com!";
print "$str
";

# Whole pne will become capital.
$str = "UWelcome to tutorialspoint.com!";
print "$str
";

# A portion of pne will become capital.
$str = "Welcome to UtutorialspointE.com!"; 
print "$str
";

# Backsalash non alpha-numeric including spaces.
$str = "QWelcome to tutorialspoint s family";
print "$str
";

Welcome to
tutorialspoint.com!
Welcome to 
tutorialspoint.com!
Welcome to tutorialspoint.com!
WELCOME TO TUTORIALSPOINT.COM!
Welcome to TUTORIALSPOINT.com!
Welcome to tutorialspoint s family