Book Description
Even if you're new to Perl, Sams Teach Yourself Perl in 24 Hours teaches you everything you need to know to begin producing useful CGI programs quickly. This book provides you with a solid foundation in the basics of the Perl language, so you can easily move on to more advanced books and techniques. Special attention is paid to those features that trouble new users. Building on that knowledge, you will begin to interact with your file system, operating system, and network environment. Then move on to creating useful CGI programs, such as data collection, shopping cart, server push, and e-mail forms.

Part I: Perl Fundamentals

1 Getting Started with Perl

2 Perl's Building Blocks: Numbers and Strings

3 Controlling the Program's Flow

4 Stacking Building Blocks: Lists and Arrays

5 Working with Files

6 Pattern Matching

7 Hashes

8 Functions

Part II: Advanced Features

9 More Functions and Operators

10 Files and Directories

11 System Interaction

12 Using Perl's Command-Line Tools

13 References and Structures

14 Using Modules

15 Finding Permanence

16 The Perl Community

Part III: Using Perl for CGI

17 Introduction to CGI

18 Basic Forms

19 Complex Forms

20 Manipulating HTTP and CGI