Built-in Functions#

Alphabetical index of every Perl 5 built-in. The content mirrors perldoc perlfunc with pperl-specific divergences flagged inline on each detail page.

For an alternate browsing view grouped by problem domain see Built-in Functions by Category.

A#

abs — Return the absolute value of a number.
accept — Accept an incoming connection on a listening socket.
alarm — Schedule a SIGALRM to be delivered to the current process after a whole number of wallclock seconds.
all — Test whether BLOCK returns true for every element of LIST.
any — Return true if BLOCK yields true for at least one element of LIST.
atan2 — Arc tangent of Y/X in the range -π to π.

B#

bind — Attach a local address to a socket.
binmode — Set the I/O layer stack on a filehandle — typically to make it deliver raw bytes, or to attach a character encoding.
bless — Mark the thing a reference points at as an object in a package.
break — Break out of a given block.

C#

caller — Return information about the subroutine, eval, or require that called the currently executing code.
catch — Handle an exception thrown by a preceding try block.
chdir — Change the process’s current working directory.
chmod — Change the permission bits of a list of files.
chomp — Strip the trailing input record separator from a string in place.
chop — Remove the last character from a string and return it.
chown — Change the owner and group of a list of files.
chr — Return the character whose codepoint is the given number.
chroot — Change the root directory of the current process and every child it later spawns.
class — Declare a namespace that behaves as a native object class.
close — Close a filehandle, flush its buffers, and release the underlying file descriptor.
closedir — Close a directory handle opened by opendir.
connect — Initiate a connection from a socket to a remote address.
continue — Attach a block to a loop that runs after every iteration, just before the condition is re-tested.
cos — Return the cosine of a number given in radians.
crypt — One-way passwd(5)-style hashing of a plaintext string with a salt.

D#

dbmclose — Break the binding between a DBM file and a hash previously attached by dbmopen.
dbmopen — Bind a DBM file on disk to a hash so hash reads and writes become lookups and stores in the database.
defer — Schedule a block to run when the enclosing scope exits, for any reason.
defined — Test whether a value, variable, or subroutine is defined.
delete — Remove the named key-value pair(s) from a hash, or element(s) from an array, and return what was removed.
die — Raise an exception.
do — Execute a block of code or run a Perl source file as if it were part of the current program.
dump — Cause the running program to produce a core dump immediately.

E#

each — Step through a hash or array one entry at a time.
endgrent — Close the group database after iterating it.
endhostent — Close the hosts database after iteration.
endnetent — Close the networks database after iteration.
endprotoent — Close the protocols database after iteration.
endpwent — Close the passwd-database iterator opened by getpwent or setpwent.
endservent — Close the services database after a walk with getservent.
eof — Test a filehandle for end-of-file.
eval — Run a piece of Perl code with any fatal error trapped instead of killing the program.
evalbytes — Compile and run a string of Perl source, forcing the source to be interpreted as bytes rather than characters.
exec — Abandon this program and run another in the same process.
exists — Test whether a hash or array element, or a named subroutine, is present — without creating it and without caring what it holds.
exit — Terminate the program with a status value.
exp — Raise e to a power.

F#

fc — Return the Unicode casefolded form of a string for case-insensitive comparison.
fcntl — Perform a fcntl(2) file-control operation on a filehandle.
field — Declare a per-instance variable inside a class block.
fileno — Return the OS-level file descriptor number behind a filehandle.
finally — Run cleanup code on the way out of a try/catch, whether the body succeeded, threw, or jumped away.
flock — Place an advisory lock on an open file.
fork — Create a new process running the same program at the same point.
format — Declare a picture-based report template for use by write.
formline — Format a list of values into a picture string and append the result to the format accumulator $^A.

G#

getc — Read the next single character from a filehandle.
getgrent — Read the next entry from the system group database.
getgrgid — Look up a group record by numeric group ID.
getgrnam — Look up a Unix group by name and return its /etc/group record.
gethostbyaddr — Look up a host record by its packed IP address.
gethostbyname — Look up a host record by DNS name.
gethostent — Fetch the next entry from the host database.
getlogin — Return the login name of the user associated with the controlling terminal.
getnetbyaddr — Look up a network record by its numeric network address.
getnetbyname — Look up a network record by name.
getnetent — Read the next entry from the networks database.
getpeername — Return the address of the remote end of a connected socket.
getpgrp — Return the POSIX process-group ID that a process belongs to.
getppid — Return the process ID of the current process’s parent.
getpriority — Return the current scheduling nice value of a process, a process group, or a user.
getprotobyname — Look up an IP protocol by its textual name and return its database entry.
getprotobynumber — Look up a network protocol entry by its assigned protocol number.
getprotoent — Fetch the next entry from the protocols database.
getpwent — Return the next entry from the system password database.
getpwnam — Look up a user’s passwd record by login name.
getpwuid — Look up a user’s passwd record by numeric UID.
getservbyname — Look up a network service by its textual name and protocol.
getservbyport — Look up a network service by its numeric port and protocol.
getservent — Read the next entry from the system services database.
getsockname — Return the local address of a connected or bound socket.
getsockopt — Read one socket option out of the kernel as an opaque packed string.
glob — Expand a shell-style filename pattern into the list of matching paths.
gmtime — Convert an epoch time to a broken-down UTC time, either as a 9-element list or as a ctime(3)-style string.
goto — Transfer execution elsewhere in the program without returning.
grep — Filter a list to the elements where the block or expression is true.

H#

hex — Interpret a string as a hexadecimal numeral and return its numeric value.

I#

import — Populate the caller’s namespace with names a module chooses to export.
index — Find the position of a substring inside a string.
int — Return the integer portion of a number, truncating toward zero.
ioctl — Perform a device-control ioctl(2) system call on a filehandle.
isa — Test whether an object is an instance of a class or of any subclass derived from it.

J#

join — Concatenate a list of strings with a separator between each adjacent pair, and return the single resulting string.

K#

keys — List all keys of a hash, or all indices of an array.
kill — Send a signal to a list of processes.

L#

last — Exit a loop immediately, skipping the rest of the body and the continue block.
lc — Return a lowercased copy of a string.
lcfirst — Return a copy of a string with its first character lowercased.
length — Return the number of characters in a string.
link — Create a hard link from NEWFILE to the existing OLDFILE.
listen — Mark a socket as passive so it can accept incoming connections.
local — Save the current value of a package variable and restore it when the enclosing scope exits.
localtime — Convert an epoch time to a broken-down calendar time in the local time zone.
lock — Place an advisory lock on a shared variable, array, hash, or subroutine until the lock goes out of scope.
log — Return the natural logarithm (base e) of a number.
lstat — Return the 13-element status list for a path without following a symbolic link.

M#

m// — Search a string for a pattern and report whether — and what — it matched.
map — Apply a block or expression to each element of a list and return the flattened results.
method — Declare a named instance method inside a class block.
mkdir — Create a single directory on the filesystem.
msgctl — Perform a control operation on a System V IPC message queue.
msgget — Create or look up a System V IPC message queue and return its id.
msgrcv — Receive a message from a System V IPC message queue.
msgsnd — Send a message to a System V IPC message queue.
my — Declare one or more lexically scoped variables.

N#

next — Start the next iteration of the enclosing loop immediately.
no — The compile-time inverse of use — call a module’s unimport method to turn off what use turned on.

O#

oct — Interpret a string as a number written in octal, hexadecimal, or binary, and return the resulting integer.
open — Associate a filehandle with a file, a command, or an in-memory scalar.
opendir — Open a directory for reading.
ord — Return the Unicode code point of the first character of a string.
our — Declare a lexically scoped alias to a package variable.

P#

pack — Convert a list of Perl values into a binary string according to a template.
package — Declare the compile-time namespace for the declarations that follow.
pipe — Open a pair of connected filehandles — one for reading, one for writing.
pop — Remove and return the last element of an array.
pos — Report or set where the next /g regex match will resume in a string.
print — Write a list of values to a filehandle.
printf — Write a formatted string to a filehandle.
prototype — Return the prototype string of a subroutine, or undef if it has none.
push — Append one or more values to the end of an array.

Q#

q// — Single-quoted string literal with a choice of delimiter.
qq// — Build a double-quoted, interpolated string with a delimiter you pick.
qr// — Compile a pattern once and hand back a reusable regex object.
quotemeta — Return a copy of a string with every regex-significant character backslash-escaped, so the result can be interpolated into a pattern and match its own literal content.
qw// — Build a list of barewords by splitting a delimited string on whitespace, without quoting or comma-separating each word.
qx// — Run a shell command and capture its standard output.

R#

rand — Return a pseudo-random floating-point number in the half-open range [0, EXPR).
read — Read a fixed amount of buffered input from a filehandle into a scalar.
readdir — Read the next entry, or all remaining entries, from a directory handle opened by opendir.
readline — Read one or more records from a filehandle.
readlink — Return the target path a symbolic link points to.
readpipe — Run a shell command and return its standard output.
recv — Read an incoming message from a socket into a scalar.
redo — Restart the current iteration of a loop without re-testing the condition and without running the continue block.
ref — Return a string describing what a reference points to.
rename — Change the name of a file.
require — Load a Perl source file at runtime, or demand a minimum Perl version.
reset — Clear every package variable whose name begins with one of a set of letters, and re-arm one-shot m?pattern? matches.
return — Leave the current subroutine, eval, do FILE, sort block, or regex eval block, yielding a value to the caller.
reverse — Reverse a list — or, in scalar context, reverse the characters of a string.
rewinddir — Reset a directory handle to the start of its listing.
rindex — Find the position of the last occurrence of a substring inside a string.
rmdir — Remove an empty directory.

S#

s/// — Search a string for a pattern and replace every match with a replacement.
say — Print a list of values followed by a newline.
scalar — Force EXPR to be evaluated in scalar context and return its value.
seek — Reposition a filehandle for random-access reads or writes.
seekdir — Restore a directory handle to a position previously captured by telldir.
select — Either set the default output filehandle, or call the select(2) syscall for I/O multiplexing. Same name, two unrelated jobs — disambiguated by argument count.
semctl — Perform a control operation on a System V semaphore set.
semget — Create or look up a System V semaphore set and return its identifier.
semop — Perform one or more System V semaphore operations atomically.
send — Send a message on a socket.
setgrent — Rewind the group-database iterator back to the first entry.
sethostent — Open or rewind the hosts database for iteration.
setnetent — Open or rewind the networks database for iteration.
setpgrp — Set the process group of a process.
setpriority — Set the scheduling priority (nice value) of a process, process group, or user.
setprotoent — Open the protocols database and prepare it for sequential reads.
setpwent — Rewind the password-database iterator so the next getpwent call returns the first entry again.
setservent — Rewind the services database and optionally keep it open across lookups.
setsockopt — Set a kernel-level option on an open socket.
shift — Remove and return the first element of an array.
shmctl — Control or query a System V shared memory segment.
shmget — Create or look up a System V shared memory segment and return its identifier.
shmread — Copy bytes out of a System V shared memory segment into a Perl scalar.
shmwrite — Copy bytes into a System V shared memory segment.
shutdown — Shut down one direction of a socket connection, or both.
sin — Return the sine of a number given in radians.
sleep — Pause the process for a number of whole seconds.
socket — Create a socket filehandle.
socketpair — Create an unnamed, connected pair of sockets that talk to each other.
sort — Sort a list, returning the sorted list.
splice — Remove and/or replace a slice of an array in place, and return the removed elements.
split — Cut a string into a list of fields using a regex separator.
sprintf — Build a formatted string from a format template and a list of values.
sqrt — Return the non-negative square root of EXPR.
srand — Seed the pseudo-random number generator.
stat — Get a file’s status information.
state — Declare a lexically scoped variable whose value persists across calls to its enclosing subroutine.
study — A no-op retained for source compatibility with older Perl code.
sub — Declare or define a subroutine.
substr — Extract, replace, or alias a contiguous slice of a string.
symlink — Create a symbolic link at NEWFILE that points at the string OLDFILE.
syscall — Invoke a raw system call by its kernel number, passing the remaining arguments as int or as a pointer to a string buffer.
sysopen — Open a file the low-level way, passing an integer MODE bitmask straight through to the underlying open(2) system call.
sysread — Read raw bytes from a filehandle by calling the underlying read(2) system call.
sysseek — Reposition a filehandle at the system level, bypassing PerlIO buffering.
system — Run a separate program and wait for it to finish.
syswrite — Write bytes to a filehandle with the raw write(2) system call, bypassing Perl’s buffered I/O.

T#

tell — Return the current byte position of a filehandle.
telldir — Return the current read position of a directory handle as an opaque token.
tie — Bind a variable to a class so that every access to the variable dispatches through that class’s methods.
tied — Return the object backing a tied variable.
time — Return the current wall-clock time as an integer number of seconds since the system epoch.
times — Report CPU time consumed by this process and its terminated children.
tr/// — Character-by-character substitution. tr scans a string and replaces every occurrence of a character from SEARCHLIST with the positionally corresponding character from REPLACEMENTLIST, returning the count of characters it touched.
truncate — Shorten (or extend) a file to an exact byte length.
try — Run a block and divert any exception it throws into a catch block, with an optional finally block that always runs on the way out.

U#

uc — Return an uppercased copy of a string.
ucfirst — Return a copy of a string with its first character titlecased.
umask — Set or read the process file-creation mode mask.
undef — The undefined value, and the operator that produces it.
unlink — Remove one or more directory entries that name files.
unpack — Extract typed values from a binary or fixed-width string according to a template.
unshift — Prepend one or more values to the start of an array and return the array’s new length.
untie — Break the binding between a variable and its tied class.
use — Load a module at compile time and import its symbols into the current package.
utime — Set access and modification times on a list of files.

V#

values — List every value of a hash (or every element of an array).
vec — Read or write a fixed-width slot inside a string treated as a packed bit vector.

W#

wait — Block until any child process exits and reap it.
waitpid — Wait for a specific child process to terminate and reap it.
wantarray — Report the calling context of the currently executing subroutine.
warn — Emit a warning to STDERR.
write — Render one record to a filehandle through its associated format.

Y#

y/// — Transliterate characters in a string. y/// is a synonym for tr/// — the two are identical in every respect.

__ (double-underscored)#

__CLASS__ — Return the class name of the instance currently being acted on.
__FILE__ — The name of the source file the token is compiled in.
__LINE__ — A compile-time token that evaluates to the line number at which it appears in the source.
__PACKAGE__ — Return the name of the package currently in effect at the point where the token appears.
__SUB__ — Return a reference to the currently executing subroutine.