format 
Declare a picture format with use by the write() function. For example
+: 

    format Something =
        Test: @<<<<<<<< @||||| @>>>>>
              $str,     $%,    '$' . int($num)
    .


    $str = "widget";
    $num = $cost/$quantity;
    $~ = 'Something';
    write;

See the perlform manpage for many details and examples. 


Source: Perl builtin functions 
Copyright: Larry Wall, et al.
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is the standard way to manage screen output in Perl. I get the impression that a lot of Perl output these days is in HTML and so format is less widely used than before. But the format command can appear even in HTML output pages.