Category: Fun Stuff
Author/Contact Info Kevin Cohe
Description: This was my first program. I did it after about an hour or two of reading Learning Perl. I relize there are other programs that do the same thing more efficiently, but this is my first program and I have much to learn. 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

print "Welcome to 99 bottles of beer on the wall\n";

print "How many bottles of beer do you want on the wall\n";

$beer=<STDIN>;

do{

$beer1=$beer-1;

if($beer1>=0){

print "$beer bottles of beer on the wall, $beer bottles of

 beer. Take one down pass it around $beer1 bottles of beer 

on the wall\n";

$beer=$beer-1;

}

}while($beer>0);
Replies are listed 'Best First'.
(jeffa) Re: 99 bottles of beer on the Wall
by jeffa (Bishop) on Aug 21, 2002 at 04:35 UTC
    Not bad for a first program ... here is a less redundant version in the interest of helping you learn more: 
    #!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my $beer = abs shift || 99;

print how_many($beer), ",\n",
   how_many($beer), ".\n",
   "Take one down, pass it around,\n",
   how_many(--$beer), ".\n\n"
while $beer;

sub how_many {
   my $numb = shift;
   return $numb 
      . ' bottle' 
      . ($numb == 1 ? '' : 's')
      . ' of beer on the wall'
   ;
}

    [download]
    Instead of asking the user for the number of beers *hic*, the code instead gets the number as a command line argument. If no argument is supplied, it instead uses a default value of 99. Also, it counts down until $beer is a false value instead of until $beer is 0 - hence, we have to take the absolute value of that command line argument lest the user give us a negative value and spin us off into an infinite loop. This version also uses a subroutine and a ternary operator (expr ? true : false), which is just a fancy if-else that is used to avoid spouting out '1 bottles'.

    Keep on coding! :)

    UPDATE: oops, you are correct mystik - and yes, my vision was blurry last night! :D (typo corrected)

    jeffa

    L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)
[reply]
[d/l]

      I'm pretty sure that you need to change how_many($beer--) to how_many(--$beer). After you take one down, and pass it around, unless your vision is blurrey, there's one fewer beer.

      For the benefit of those that don't know, $var-- returns the value of $var, then decrements it. --$var first decrements, then returns $var

      If the eval engine in my brain is correct, --$var++ will return $var - 1, but the value of $var will still be the same ;)

[reply]
      And here's a different way: 
      #!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings 'all';

use Lingua::EN::Inflect;

my $beer = abs (shift || 99);

sub UNIVERSAL::TIEHASH {bless [] => shift}
sub UNIVERSAL::FETCH   {no strict 'refs';
                        &{"Lingua::EN::Inflect::" . ref $_ [0]}
                                                   (split /$;/ => $_ [
+1])}
tie my %N => 'NUMWORDS';
tie my %B => 'PL';

print <<"--" while $beer;
   \u$N{$beer} $B{bottle => $beer} of beer on the wall,
   $N{$beer} $B{bottle => $beer --} of beer.
   Take one down,
   pass it around.
   \u$N{$beer} $B{bottle => $beer} of beer on the wall.

--
package NUMWORDS;
package PL;
__END__

      [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
      Getting rid of the warning and making it just a little bit prettier: 
      #!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use Lingua::EN::Nums2Words; 

my $beer = shift || 99;
$beer = abs($beer);

print how_many($beer), ",\n",
   how_many($beer), ".\n",
   "Take one down, pass it around,\n",
   how_many(--$beer), ".\n\n"
while $beer;

sub how_many {
   my $numb = &num2word(shift);
   $numb =~ s/(\w)(.*)/\u$1\L$2/;  
   return $numb
      . ' bottle' 
      . ($numb eq 'One' ? '' : 's')
      . ' of beer on the wall'
   ;
}

      [download]
      Requires Lingua::EN::Nums2Words. 
      ()-()
 \"/
  `
[reply]
[d/l]
        Here's the first joke that I can remember telling as a kid. It still cracks em up today. 
        #!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use Lingua::EN::Nums2Words; 

my $beer = shift || 99;
$beer = abs($beer);

for (-9..$beer) {
    print how_many($beer), ",\n",
       how_many($beer), ".\n",
       "Take one down, pass it around,\n",
       how_many(--$beer), ".\n\n"
}

sub how_many {
   my $numb = &num2word(shift);
   $numb =~ s/(\w)(.*)/\u$1\L$2/;  
   return $numb
      . ' bottle' 
      . ($numb eq 'One' ? '' : 's')
      . ' of beer on the wall'
   ;
}

        [download]
        ()-()
 \"/
  `
[reply]
[d/l]

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