#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

{
	my $originalValue = 5;
	my $modifiedValue = "$originalValue.00";
	my $escapedValue = "$originalValue\.00";

	print "\$originalvalue = '$originalValue'\n";
	print "\$modifiedvalue = '$modifiedValue'\n";
	print "\$escapedvalue = '$escapedValue'\n";
}

exit;

__END__

---------------[ Older Perl ]---------------
C:\Steve\Dev\PerlMonks\P-2013-09-23@1207-ForceFloat>perl -v

This is perl, v5.8.9 built for MSWin32-x64-multi-thread
(with 12 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)

C:\Steve\Dev\PerlMonks\P-2013-09-23@1207-ForceFloat>forcefloat.pl
$originalvalue = '5'
$modifiedvalue = '5.00'
$escapedvalue = '5.00'

---------------[ Newer Perl ]---------------
C:\Steve\Dev\PerlMonks\P-2013-09-23@1207-ForceFloat>perl -v

This is perl 5, version 16, subversion 3 (v5.16.3) built for MSWin32-x64-multi-thread
(with 1 registered patch, see perl -V for more detail)

C:\Steve\Dev\PerlMonks\P-2013-09-23@1207-ForceFloat>forcefloat.pl
$originalvalue = '5'
$modifiedvalue = '5.00'
$escapedvalue = '5.00'