8 Best Perl 5 Courses for 2024: Powerful Text Processing
Here is a guide with the best courses to learn Perl, a general-purpose, feature-rich language perfect for high performance in text-heavy applications.
Perl 5 is a high-level dynamic general-purpose scripting language popular among system administrators, network engineers, and web developers. It is most famous for its text-processing capabilities, specifically its in-built version of regular expressions.
If you want to learn one of the highest-paying languages in tech, you will find the perfect course in this Best Courses Guide to get you started in Perl, even if you are not a programmer!
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Here are my top picks. Click on one to skip to the course details:
What is Perl 5?
Perl 5 is a high-level dynamic general-purpose scripting language developed and released in 1987 by Larry Well. It was well-loved among system administrators because of its efficient text processing features, such as regular expressions and string parsing, enabling them to handle large amounts of data. But with the rise of the World Wide Web, Perl had a second wave of popularity thanks to its ability to quickly and easily manipulate web content.
Perl has undergone numerous changes and improvements over the years, including a redesign that split off into its own programming language called Raku. Despite this, Perl remains a valuable tool in the era of cloud computing, with companies like DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and Amazon continuing to use it for its high performance and versatility. In addition to its text processing capabilities, Perl is also capable of object-oriented and functional programming, terse one-liner expressions, and importing a massive number of third-party modules from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN).
Perl remains one of the top highest-paying languages according to the 2023 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, with a median yearly salary of $94.5K. So if you’re looking into web development, system administration, data analysis, bioinformatics, or any other text-heavy applications, Perl can open up many great opportunities.
Stats
- Around 1,500 people are following the Perl Subject on Class Central.
- 4 courses are free or free-to-audit, 4 courses are paid.
Best Free Comprehensive Course for Programmers (freeCodeCamp)
The most recent course on this list is Perl Programming Course for Beginners, a free YouTube course on freeCodeCamp. You’ll cover everything you need to become functional with Perl, from basic syntax to advanced topics such as object-oriented programming, regular expressions, and web development.
PerlTechStack, your instructor for this course, has used Perl for years. He’ll teach you:
- The basics of Perl syntax and how to write simple Perl scripts
- Perl data types like scalars, arrays, hashes and how to work with basic data in your programs
- Common Perl operators for tasks like string manipulation, arithmetic, comparisons and more
- Conditional statements like if/else and logical operators to control program flow
- Loops, such as for, foreach and while to repeat operations
- Regular expressions for advanced text parsing and validation
- Subroutines to organize your code into reusable functions
- Object oriented programming concepts in Perl like classes, objects, methods and inheritance
- Working with files and directories using the built-in file handling functions
- Making web requests with Mojo, and then parsing the responses
- Best practices for writing clean, readable and maintainable Perl code.
Enjoyed the course? Be sure to check out PerlTechStack’s YouTube channel for more Perl-related content.
| Channel | freeCodeCamp |
| Provider | YouTube |
| Instructor | PerlTechStack |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 4 hours |
| Views | 53K |
| Likes | 1.3K |
| Cost | Free |
| Exercises | Code demos |
| Certificate | None |
Best Comprehensive Course for Web Development (John Purcell)
My pick for the best Perl 5 course is Learn Perl 5 By Doing It by John Purcell.
Although this paid course is quite old, it still packs a lot of wisdom regarding the Perl programming language. You’ll learn lots of common uses of Perl, like web scraping, regular expressions, command-line, parsing XML, database-querying, sysadmin tasks, and more.
To take this course, you should already know the basics of programming.
What you’ll learn:
- First steps: syntax overview, creating “Hello, World!” program, learning file operations with text and image files
- Regular expressions: writing concise regex statements for file reading, web scraping, enhanced by arrays and hashes
- Command line programs: developing with subroutines, parsing XML files, and handling complex data structures
- Database communication: demonstrating MySQL usage, highlighting Perl’s compatibility with various SQL frameworks
- Code sharing in Perl: understanding packages and modules, using third-party code from CPAN
- Object-oriented code: emphasizing clean coding practices
- Web development: setting up Apache HTTP Server, creating a basic web application entirely in Perl.
John Purcell is a Udemy instructor with over 14 years of software developer experience working for companies such as CSC, Proquest, SPSS and AT&T.
Over 2.7 million students have enrolled in his 19 courses including Learn Advanced C++ Programming and the free tutorial Java Design Patterns and Architecture.
| Provider | Udemy |
| Instructor | John Purcell |
| Level | Intermediate |
| Workload | 14 hours |
| Enrollments | 16K |
| Rating | 4.2 / 5.0 (2.5K) |
| Cost | Paid |
| Exercises | Code demos, exercises, projects |
| Certificate | Paid |
Best Free Course for Programmers (perlmaven.com)
Perl Maven’s Perl tutorial is a free text-based course that teaches you the basics of the Perl 5 programming language. You will learn both general language features and common modules, including the standard module and CPAN modules.
The course also comes with a companion 5 hour video course if you prefer that format of learning.
You should have prior knowledge of programming languages to take this course.
You’ll learn about:
- Intro to Perl: environment setup and basic concepts (user input, operators, conditional statements, loops, functions, scalar variables)
- File operations: reading from and writing to files
- Lists, arrays, and subroutines: manipulating these fundamental data structures, recursive use of subroutines
- Hashes: exploring key-value pairs in another data structure
- Regular expressions: efficient implementation in Perl, writing custom regex expressions for string manipulation
- Module import from CPAN: exploring third-party modules, usage in code
- Common warnings and error messages: recognizing and addressing issues encountered during coding.
Gabor Szabo helps companies set up test automation, CI/CD Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment and other DevOps related systems.
Also available: advanced Perl course (free) and an e-book for purchase.
| Website | perlmaven.com |
| Instructor | Gabor Szabo |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | N/A |
| Cost | Free |
| Exercises | Code demos |
| Certificate | None |
Best Free Crash Course for Programmers and Non-Programmers (Ned Dev)
Perl Enough to be dangerous will teach you enough about Perl to get you standing on your own two feet. This free concise course is only three hours long, and is great for both complete beginners and those who already have some experience.
What you’ll learn:
- Perl environment setup: create “Hello, World!” program and execute code in the terminal
- Programming basics: scalars, types, conditional statements, and loops for formalizing program logic
- Data structures: arrays and hashes, essential for handling complex data, along with related functions
- Writing: functions and subroutines, gracefully handling run-time errors
- Input and output: getting input from users or files, appreciating built-in Perl regular expressions, and using reverse, map, and grep functions.
| Channel | Ned Dev |
| Provider | YouTube |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 3 hours |
| Views | 13K |
| Likes | 350 |
| Cost | Free |
| Exercises | Code demos |
| Certificate | None |
Best Free Exercise Provider (Exercism)
Exercism is a free online platform providing programming exercises for all kinds of difficulties, helping people level up their skills through hard work and practice.
Although there are many exercises you can find on the web, the main reason why I recommend Exercism is because it provides free personal mentoring for any answer that you want to be reviewed and gives constructive advice and feedback. Hence, beginners to Perl will find it especially useful to see what idiomatic Perl code is as they progress through the 65 hands-on challenges. Each one comes with automatic analysis of your code as well as personal mentoring to help you understand your code’s strengths and flaws.
What you’ll learn:
- Exercism Perl module: primarily for beginners with easy exercises
- Exercise types: algorithm/data structure implementation and development of useful programs
- Algorithm examples: binary search, binary search tree, custom sets, doubly linked lists, and more
- Program examples: grade calculation, leap year reporting, Pascal’s triangle, shift cipher implementation.
Exercism provides exercises on 60+ programming languages including Python, Kotlin, F#, and even WebAssembly.
| Provider | Exercism |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | N/A |
| Contributors | 47 people |
| Mentors | 100 mentors |
| Enrollments | 3.3K |
| Cost | Free |
| Exercises | Coding exercises with feedback |
| Certificate | None |
Best Course Based on the “Modern Perl” Movement (LinkedIn Learning)
Perl 5 Essential Training taught by Bill Weiman is based on the “Modern Perl” movement, which promotes mature syntax and reusable modules. In this paid course with free trial, you’ll be provided with the basics needed to write effective scripts in the Perl language and maintain existing code bases.
The course also includes a quick-start guide for experienced developers who want to get up and running with Perl 5 quickly.
No prior experience with Perl is required to take this course.
In this course, you’ll learn:
- Introduction to Perl syntax and basic script anatomy
- Values, variable assignment, and data types: strings and numbers
- Control flow: conditionals and loops for logical program flow
- Function calling and definition, known as subroutines in Perl
- Exploring Perl’s powerful regular expression system
- Introduction to Perl’s simple yet powerful object-oriented programming model
- Final chapters cover file handling, code reuse with Perl modules, and best coding practices.
Bill Weinman is a tech advocate, entrepreneur, and expert in programming languages such as C++ and Python. He has also authored several books and online courses on the technical aspects of the World Wide Web on LinkedIn Learning.
| Provider | LinkedIn Learning |
| Instructor | Bill Weinman |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 5 hours |
| Enrollments | 28K |
| Likes | 4.7 / 5.0 (170) |
| Cost | Paid (with free trial) |
| Exercises | Code demos and end-chapter exercises |
| Certificate | Paid |
Best Practical Course to Master the Basics of Perl (Pluralsight)
In the Perl 5 Fundamentals Pluralsight course, you’ll learn to master the basics of the Perl language. The course revolves around building a utility around credit card maskings, and you’ll approach the course with this in mind. By the end of this paid course with free trial, you’ll have comprehensive knowledge of the Perl language and have the skills necessary to develop fast, secure, and portable automation or monitoring scripts.
No prior exposure with Perl is required to take this course.
In this course:
- First steps: ‘Hello, World!’ program, basic syntax, development environment setup, and credit card data handling
- Exploring Perl data structures: lists, arrays, hashes, and flow constructs
- File handling: checking, reading, and writing files, addressing I/O errors
- Regular expressions in Perl: basic pattern matching, extracting matches, substituting, and translating text
- Code refactoring: using Perl subroutines and parameters
- Module packaging: creating and distributing modules, downloading/installing from CPAN
- Database interaction: connecting with Oracle and MySQL, code testing, and Perl best practices.
Saravanan Dhandapani is a solution architect working in the financial domain focused on end-to-end design and architecture.
You can find the course’s GitHub repository here: saravanan75/perl5 (github.com)
| Provider | Pluralsight |
| Instructor | Saravanan Dhandapani |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 4 hours |
| Cost | Paid (with free trial) |
| Exercises | Code demos, project |
| Certificate | Paid |
Best Comprehensive Course for IT Professionals (Geekuni)
Perl Essentials: Perl tutorial for IT Professionals is a paid course designed to get you up to speed with Modern Perl by learning through doing. Your end goal for this course is developing an airport search engine, and everything you’ll work on in this course contributes towards that. By the end, you’ll be sufficiently skilled in Perl to implement sophisticated functionality with only a moderate amount of coding.
No prior experience with programming is required, though familiarity with the command line is assumed.
What you’ll learn:
- Perl language fundamentals: scalar variables, and data types
- Data structures: arrays, lists, hashes; understanding and effective use for grouped data management
- Control flow and conditionals: decision-making with grouped data
- Subroutines: executing code in different blocks, code compartmentalization, parameter passing using references
- Regex matching and substitution: powerful tools for reading text data from files or networks
- Accessing CPAN: learning to use hundreds of thousands of Perl modules in your code.
For those with prior programming experience, there is a fast track available within the course.
Geekuni is an online institute founded by Andrew Solomon that provides software development and web development courses.
| Provider | Geekuni |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | N/A |
| Cost | Paid |
| Exercises | Capstone project |
| Certificate | Paid |
Why You Should Trust Us
Class Central, a Tripadvisor for online education, has helped 60 million learners find their next course. We’ve been combing through online education for more than a decade to aggregate a catalog of 200,000 online courses and 200,000 reviews written by our users. And we’re online learners ourselves: combined, the Class Central team has completed over 400 online courses, including online degrees.
Best Courses Guides Methodology
I built this ranking following the now tried-and-tested methodology used in previous Best Courses Guides (you can find them all here). It involves a three-step process:
- Research: I started by leveraging Class Central’s database. I made a preliminary selection of Perl courses by rating, reviews, and bookmarks.
- Evaluate: I read through reviews on Class Central, Reddit, and course providers to understand what other learners thought about each course and combined it with my own experience as a learner.
- Select: Well-made courses were picked if they presented valuable and engaging content and they have to fit in a set of criteria and be ranked accordingly: comprehensive curriculum, affordability, release date, ratings and enrollments.
Pat revised the research and the latest version of this article.
Elham Nazif
