Rating: 
Summary: Several years of experience in several hundred pages
Review: Sometimes I think either Tim O'Reilly or Tom Christiansen knows what I am thinking.In the past week alone, I can count half a dozen times I have wondered about ways to do things in Perl, and never once have I failed to get either a full solution or a running start from the information in this book. If you have read Learning Perl by Christiansen and Schwartz (and if you haven't, you probably should before tackling this one), then this is your next step on the road to Perl. This book contains hundreds of examples of solutions to "How do I..." type problems using Perl. Ranging from core language topics like hashes, sorting, and string and array processing, to files, database access, IPC, and brief but useful sections on Web and CGI usage, there is something here for everyone who does things with Perl. Each chapter contains at least a dozen 'recipes' for solving a particular problem in a particular context. Each recipe is neatly laid out with a brief description of the problem, a proposed solution, and a follow-up discussion section. I especially appreciated the discussions, as they maintain the plurality of Perl--the proposed solutions work, but the discussion area almost invariably also includes alternate approaches or techniques. That's the beauty of Perl (and its motto)--There's More Than One Way To Do It. This book offers the intermediate programmer years of experience in solving real world problems using Perl in a few hundred, easy to read pages. If you have learned enough about Perl to get started, the next thing you should do is get this book. So get cooking!
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Summary: The book every Perl programmer should own
Review: More books like these should be written for all popular languages. This is by far the most used book for me when I started to learn and program using Win32 Perl. I've not run into any problems with programming in the Win32 environment with this book. The second most used book is "Perl in a Nutshell," also by O'Reilly. But if there's a problem I have, I reach for this book first. 700+ pages packed with solutions and explanations of those solutions to many common problems. Most of the time, you'll find something in there to get you started if it doesn't solve your problem outright. There are whole sections for solving problems with: Strings
Numbers
Date and Times
Arrays
Hashes
Pattern Matching
File Access
File Contents
Directories
Subroutines
References and Records
Packages, Libraries and Modules
Classes, Objects and Ties
Database Access
User Interface
Process AManagement and Communication
Sockets
Internet Services
CGI Programming
Web Automation That's 20 sections in all! Get the book and stop suffering while looking for answers to your Perl problems. This book easily saved a month's worth of my time during a 4 month project. Plus, it saved me from writing inefficient code simply because I was new to the language and didn't know the tricks that can be used for such a wonderful language.
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Summary: The missing manual from the Camel Book
Review: Invaluable text that offers quick and varied solutions to the most common perl tasks. I like the variety of solutions; generally the first one they suggest is the one of the ideas you'll have had for solving the problem; then they refine it into most robust, idiomatic perl, which means you have the option of learning how the pros do it. Oh, and the index is well laid out, which is absolutely essential in the must-finish-this-program-by-tonite sort of book that this is.
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Summary: Recommended - Especially for CGI Programmers still looking..
Review: I have had experience in the language for a few months now. The only reason I even started learning Perl was because I was intrigued with programming CGI. I bought "Programming Perl" and enjoyed it as a beginners reference but was left hanging as where to turn next. I picked up 2-3 other books, specifically for web programming with Perl, but they all did not get into topics besides basic form parsing, etc and the information was repeatative from book to book. I finally found this book and it has answered all my questions and cleared all my confusions with my CGI scripts. It has a lot of good examples/scripts with helpful subroutines. I use them in almost every CGI script I program now because of their ease of use and accuracy. There were a few minor mistakes in their code (perhaps a test to see if you can debug their scripts using your new knowledge <grin>) that kept it from getting a perfect 10 but 9.5 is good enough anyways. Don't hesitate to buy it as it is probably the most used and most valuable Perl book on the market! (Not recommended unless you have basic knowledge of Perl)
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional Book
Review: I consider myself a beginner Perl-hacker. I use Perl to accomplish directly applicable tasks for my work (Logic Designer). I hack as little as needed to get the job done. Having said that, when I have a new problem to solve, this is the first book I peruse for ideas... and more often than not I find something very useful and applicable.
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Summary: Perl Cookbook: Nutritious and Delicious
Review: I love Perl. I am almost obsessed with it. I have even left love messages for my wife in the mirror written in the best Perl I can manage. That's not to say that I am a Perl expert--not by any means. I think I shall forever remain a student as there is always more to learn. I am always searching for the latest Perl tidbit and I usually turn first to an O'Reilly book. One of the latest publications to come from O'Reilly on the subject of Perl is the second edition of the Perl Cookbook. Five years have passed since the last edition was published and a lot has changed in that short time span. For those of you looking to improve your physique without leaving your desk, you'll find hefting this latest edition better suited to the task. It's about 200 pages thicker and about 543 pounds heavier. Okay, so the weight is an exaggeration. There are 80 new recipes (and two new chapters) covering technologies such as Unicode, XML and mod_perl. Even if you own a copy of the first edition, you will find the new recipes and the updated recipes of great value. For those of you unfamiliar The Perl Cookbook, you will discover a rich treasure trove of excellent solutions to vexing problems. While the Perl Cookbook won't teach you the basics of Perl, beginners can benefit from not having to reinvent the wheel for addressing common tasks such as sorting, traversing, printing or deleting hashes. Advanced Perl Mongers may find the updated discussion on process management, object orientation and module creation enlightening.
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Summary: A fantastic resource for Perl programmers
Review: This is a first and best of the O'Reilly cookbooks. A few people have told me, "I don't know Perl, I just use the cookbook." It's sad but true. But it shine well on the book that has recipes for literally all the basic stuff you will need on a daily basis with multiple version of each solution so that you can pick the one that works best for you.
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Summary: Must have
Review: A must have for any Perl programmer. Code snippets for nearly any conceivable scenario. This book can save you time.
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Summary: Useful common practices
Review: Already having considerable experience as a professional programmer mostly from system level software, I started out my new job as a database programmer with little to no previous hands-on Perl experience at a company unit where Perl was the commonly used tool for various data collecting and manipulation tasks, which compelled me to learn Perl very rapidly. After digesting the Perl syntax from "Programming Perl", I picked up this book and was instantly able to code a reporting utility by referencing this book whenever I encountered a problem I didn't know the Perl solution for, such as smart ways for processing user input or even rounding floating point numbers. Eventually I've read this book a few times from cover to cover and learned various common practices that I repeatedly, and successfully, apply in my day-to-day programming tasks, and some of the stuff in this book is even applicable to various other environments. A recommended read for people who prefer to learn Perl by doing, and you just might add some tricks up your sleeve even if Perl isn't your primary interest.
Rating:
Summary: So very useful
Review: This book is useful in a 1000 ways. I go back to it at least 3 times a week. If you code in PERL, get this book.
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