Perl is a high-level, general-purpose programming language originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987. It stands for “Practical Extraction and Reporting Language.” Perl is known for its flexibility, text processing capabilities, and regular expression support, making it a popular choice for various tasks, including system administration, web development, data manipulation, and automation.

Here’s an introduction to Perl:

1. Text Processing and Regular Expressions:
One of Perl’s key strengths is its powerful text processing capabilities. It has robust support for regular expressions, allowing developers to manipulate and extract data from strings with ease.

2. Multi-Platform Support:
Perl is cross-platform, which means it can run on various operating systems, including Unix, Linux, macOS, and Windows.

3. Open Source and Community-Driven:
Perl is an open-source language with an active and dedicated community. It has an extensive library of modules (CPAN – Comprehensive Perl Archive Network), making it easy to access pre-written code for various tasks.

4. Versatility and Flexibility:
Perl is a multipurpose language suitable for both small scripts and large-scale applications. It supports procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming styles, allowing developers to choose the approach that best fits their needs.

5. Regular Expression Support:
Regular expressions are a fundamental part of Perl, making it particularly well-suited for tasks involving pattern matching, text parsing, and data extraction.

6. Practical Application Areas:
Perl is widely used in areas such as text processing, system administration, network programming, web development (CGI scripting), data manipulation, and automation.

In this article

• Part 1: 30 Perl quiz questions & answers
• Part 2: Download Perl questions & answers for free
• Part 3: Free online quiz creator – OnlineExamMaker

Part 1: 30 Perl quiz questions & answers

1. What does Perl stand for?
a) Personal Electronic and Reporting Language
b) Practical Extraction and Reporting Language
c) Programming and Extensible Retrieval Language
d) Python Extension and Reporting Language
Answer: b) Practical Extraction and Reporting Language

2. Who is the original creator of Perl?
a) Guido van Rossum
b) James Gosling
c) Larry Wall
d) Linus Torvalds
Answer: c) Larry Wall

3. In Perl, which special variable is used to represent the current line number of the file being processed?
a) $file_line
b) $line_num
c) $LINENO
d) $.
Answer: d) $.

4. Which of the following is the correct syntax for a comment in Perl?
a) /* This is a comment */
b) // This is a comment
c) # This is a comment
d)
Answer: c) # This is a comment

5. How do you declare a scalar variable in Perl?
a) $var
b) @var
c) %var
d) &var
Answer: a) $var

6. Which Perl function is used to read input from the user?
a) get()
b) read()
c)
d) input()
Answer: c)

7. In Perl, what does the “chomp” function do?
a) It removes whitespace characters from the end of a string.
b) It converts a string to uppercase.
c) It removes whitespace characters from the beginning of a string.
d) It removes the newline character from the end of a string.
Answer: d) It removes the newline character from the end of a string.

8. What is the correct way to open a file named “data.txt” in Perl for reading?
a) open(file, “data.txt”, “r”);
b) open(file, “<", "data.txt"); c) open(file, "data.txt"); d) open(file, "read", "data.txt"); Answer: b) open(file, "<", "data.txt"); 9. Which function in Perl is used to print output to the console? a) print() b) echo() c) console.log() d) println() Answer: a) print() 10. What is the purpose of the "strict" pragma in Perl? a) It enforces strict type checking. b) It enables stricter syntax rules and error checking. c) It restricts the use of certain built-in functions. d) It enables debugging mode. Answer: b) It enables stricter syntax rules and error checking. 11. How do you concatenate two strings in Perl? a) string1 + string2 b) string1 . string2 c) string1 : string2 d) string1 & string2 Answer: b) string1 . string2 12. Which function is used to find the length of a string in Perl? a) len() b) length() c) str_len() d) size() Answer: b) length() 13. What is the correct syntax to define a subroutine (function) in Perl? a) function mySub {} b) def mySub {} c) sub mySub {} d) subroutine mySub {} Answer: c) sub mySub {} 14. How do you pass command-line arguments to a Perl script? a) %ARGV b) $ARGV[] c) @ARGV d) $ARGV Answer: c) @ARGV 15. In Perl, what does the "foreach" loop do? a) It iterates over an array. b) It iterates over a hash. c) It iterates over a string. d) It iterates over a file handle. Answer: a) It iterates over an array.

Part 2: Download Perl questions & answers for free

16. What does the “my” keyword do when declaring a variable in Perl?
a) It marks the variable as constant.
b) It marks the variable as private to the current block or subroutine.
c) It marks the variable as global to the entire program.
d) It marks the variable as read-only.
Answer: b) It marks the variable as private to the current block or subroutine.

17. How do you check if a file exists in Perl?
a) exists(file)
b) file.exists()
c) -e “file”
d) file.exists(file)
Answer: c) -e “file”

18. In Perl, what does the “split” function do?
a) It splits an array into multiple subarrays.
b) It splits a string into an array.
c) It combines multiple arrays into one.
d) It combines multiple strings into one.
Answer: b) It splits a string into an array.

19. What is the purpose of the “do” keyword in Perl?
a) It marks the beginning of a loop.
b) It marks the end of a loop.
c) It executes a block of code.
d) It imports a module.
Answer: c) It executes a block of code.

20. In Perl, how do you access the last element of an array?
a) $array[0]
b) $array[-1]
c) $array[1]
d) $array[last]
Answer: b) $array[-1]

21. Which function is used to sort an array in Perl?
a) array_sort()
b) sort_array()
c) sort()
d) sortArray()
Answer: c) sort()

22. How do you declare a hash variable in Perl?
a) %var
b) $var
c) @var
d) &var
Answer: a) %var

23. What is the purpose of the “unless” keyword in Perl?
a) It is used for exception handling.
b) It is an alternative to the “if” statement.
c) It is used for loop control.
d) It is used to define a subroutine.
Answer: b) It is an alternative to the “if” statement.

24. What is the correct way to access the value of a hash element in Perl?
a) $hash{‘key’}
b) hash{‘key’}
c) $hash[‘key’]
d) $hash(key)
Answer: a) $hash{‘key’}

25. In Perl, what does the “next” statement do in a loop?
a) It terminates the loop.
b) It skips the rest of the loop’s code and proceeds to the next iteration.
c) It starts the loop over from the beginning.
d) It reverses the loop’s direction.
Answer: b) It skips the rest of the loop’s code and proceeds to the next iteration.

26. What is the purpose of the “redo” statement in Perl?
a) It re-executes the entire loop from the beginning.
b) It restarts the loop with the next iteration.
c) It is used to label a loop.
d) It is used to restart the program from the beginning.
Answer: a) It re-executes the entire loop from the beginning.

27. How do you remove an element from an array in Perl?
a) remove_element(@array, $element)
b) delete $array[$index]
c) array_pop(@array)
d) $array – $element
Answer: b) delete $array[$index]

28. What does the “last” statement do in Perl?
a) It breaks out of a loop prematurely.
b) It continues to the next iteration of a loop.
c) It executes a block of code.
d) It restarts the loop from the beginning.
Answer: a) It breaks out of a loop prematurely.

29. How do you find the number of elements in an array in Perl?
a) array_size(@array)
b) $array_length(@array)
c) @array_length
d) scalar @array
Answer: d) scalar @array

30. Which function in Perl is used to open a file for writing or create a new file if it does not exist?
a) open(file, “w”);
b) open(file, “>”)
c) open(file, “write”)
d) open(file, “+>”)
Answer: b) open(file, “>”)

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