Double quotes interpolate, which means that variables get expanded within them, and escaped characters like \n and \r are interpreted as special. Single quotes are intrepreted literally, so

print "$string\n"; #(prints the current value of $string followed by a
+ newline)

print '$string\n' # prints out the characters $, s, t, r, i, n, g, \, 
+n
[download]

(Update see String Literals in Perl for more info. We now return you to the original message) You may be relieved to find out that

print 'This must appear on its own line
';
[download]

Sticks a newline into the printed string. And Learning Perl, from O'Reilly, certainly does cater to beginners; moreover, there is Learning Perl on Win32 Systems from the same publisher, and if you have something against Sebastopol, CA, Elements of Programming With Perl is out there.

When do you *need* to explicitly output \r ? I don't think one usually needs to worry about that under NT/2K. I do believe that Perl is smart enough to add it for you when needed. Unfortunately, I can't check that just now ... (I'm too much of a *nix guy these days)

Woot! thanks for your help. you rock!

I wanted to let you know that I did downvote your node, for a couple of reasons.

• nobody called you stupid, hombre. we generally dont do that here.
  <print 'I a new line after this statement';>
• doesnt even appear to be in perl. is that javascript? and yet, people attempted to help you. what irked me is that you got hostile and defensive about things.

Programming Perl is not intended to be a book for newbies. I read Programming Perl 1st edition and was truly lost, even though I knew quite a bit of C and a few other languages at the time. A couple years later, I came back to it, and decided instead to purchase the second edition and Learning Perl as well. O'Reilly has excellent books, and they even do a good job at teaching newbies. Programming The Perl DBI (by alligator descartes) is an excellent example of this, as is Learning Perl.

arturo gave you the correct answer. There are also several other threads that deal with this. I encourage you to use the Super Search and, if youre 'leet, the Secret Search <grin>.

finally, i want to restate that we're here to help, and i think that 99% of the time, we manage to be a very good, generous lot. so be respectful.

brother dep.

--
Laziness, Impatience, Hubris, and Generosity.