Operator Characteristics
Learn about operator characteristics in Perl.
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Some people call Perl an operator-oriented language. A Perl operator is a series of one or more symbols used as part of the syntax of a language. Each operator operates on zero or more operands. Think of an operator as a special function the parser understands and its operands as arguments.
We’ve seen how Perl manages context through its operators. To understand Perl fully, we must understand how operators interact with their operands.
Operator characteristics
Every operator possesses several important characteristics that govern its behavior: the number of operands on which it operates, its relationship to other operators, the contexts it enforces, and the syntax it provides.
perldoc perlop and perldoc perlsyn provide voluminous information about Perl’s operators, but the docs assume we’re already familiar with a few essential computer science concepts. Fortunately, we’ll recognize these ideas from written language and elementary mathematics, even if we’ve never heard their complicated names before.
Precedence
The precedence of an operator governs when Perl should evaluate it in an expression. Perl evaluates the operator with the highest precedence first, then the next highest, all the way to the lowest precedence. Remember basic math? Multiply and divide before we add and subtract. That’s precedence. Because the ...