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I have just started learning Perl and this is my first Perl question. I'm working through "Learning Perl" and I've got a problem with strings. Specifically the difference b/t single-quoted and double-quoted strings and the use of the backslash character.

In the Single-quoted strings section it says that, "Any character other than a single quote or a backslash between the quote marks (including newline characters, if the string continues onto successive lines) stands for itself inside a string. To get a backslash, put two backslashes in a row, and to get a single quote, put a backslash followed by a single quote."

I tried the following:

    print 'Testing\z';
    print 'Testing\\n';
    print 'Testing\\\n';
    print "\n";
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And get:

    erikweibust@daleweibust ~/perl/lrn_perl $ ./test1-2.pl
    Testing\nTesting\nTesting\\n
    erikweibust@daleweibust ~/perl/lrn_perl $
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So I'm scared that either the books wrong (please don't get the wrath of Randal Schwartz) or I'm missing something. I would have expected the output to be:

    erikweibust@daleweibust ~/perl/lrn_perl $ ./test1-2.pl
    TestingnTesting\nTesting\n
    erikweibust@daleweibust ~/perl/lrn_perl $
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Can anybody help clear this up?

Thanks,
Erik

In reply to Problem w/ single-quoted strings by eweibust

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