Perl Operator Types

Perl operators provide values to their operands like numeric, Boolean or string, etc. To choose an appropriate operator, you need to know the value of operands.

We'll discuss following type of operators:

• Numeric operators
• String operators
• Logical operators
• Bitwise operators
• Special operators
• Comparison operators
• Assignment operators

Numeric operators

Numeric operators are the standard arithmetic operators like addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), division (/) and modulo (%), etc.

String operators

String operators are positive and negative regular expression with repetition (=~ and !~) and concatenation ( .).

String Concatenation operator

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;
my $result = "Hello this is " . "rookienerd.";
say $result;

String Repetition operator

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;
my $result = "Thank You " x 3;
say $result;

Here, note that on the right of 'x' it must be an integer.

There should be space on either side of the 'x' operator.

For example,

$result = "Thank You " x 3;  # This is correct
$result = "Thank You "x3;  # This is incorrect

Logical operators

Logical operators give a Boolean value to their operands. They are (&&, || and or).

&& -> In && operator, if $a is 0, then value of $a && $b must be false irrespective of the value of $b. So perl does not bother to check $b value. This is called short-circuit evaluation.

|| -> In || operator, if $a is non-zero, then value of $a && $b must be true irrespective of the value of $b. So perl does not bother to check $b value.

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;
$a = 0;
$b = 12;
my $result1 = $a && $b; 
say $result1;
$a = 12;
$b = 14;
my $result2 = $a || $b;
say $result2;

Bitwise operators

Bitwise operators treat their operands numerically at bit level. These are (<<, >>, &, |, ^, <<=, >>=, &=, |=, ^=).

Every number will be denoted in terms of 0s and 1s. Initially integers will be converted into binary bit and result will be evaluated. Final result will be displayed in the integer form.

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;
#OR operator
my $result1 = 124.3 | 99;
say $result1;
#AND operator
my $result2 = 124.3 & 99;
say $result2;
#XOR operator
my $result3 = 124.3 ^ 99;
say $result3;
#Shift operator
my $result4 = 124 >> 3;
say $result4;

Special operators

The auto-increment (++) operator is a special operator that increments the numeric character itself by 1.

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;
my $num = 9;
my $str = 'x';
$num++;
$str++;
say $num++;
say $str++;

Comparison operators

The comparison operator compares the values of its operands. These are ( ==, <, <=, >, >=, <=>, !=).

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;
say "Enter your salary:";
my $salary = <>;
if($salary >= 20000)
{
	say "You are earning well";
} else {
	say "You are not earning well";
}

Assignment operators

The assignment operator assigns a value to a variable.

These are (=, +=, -=, *=, /=, |=, &=, %=)

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;
$a = 20;
my $result1 = $a += $a;
say $result1;
my $result2 = $a -= 10;
say $result2;

my $result3 = $a |= 10;
say $result3;
my $result4 = $a &= 10;
say $result4;