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Scalar data are characterized by the fact that they contain a single value.
Thus, they are the building blocks of any information that your perl program
will store or manipulate.
There are two main types of scalar data in perl: string and numeric. A third
type, known as a reference, is generally only used when you are working with
complex data structures.
Scalar data, both string and numeric, are stored in variables which begin with
a dollar sign ($
). Perl will convert strings to numbers and vice versa
whenever it's completely clear what that means. One place where it's not
clear is when you compare two things, so, as explained in
Section 3.4, you should make sure that you use the correct
operator when comparing two values.
Subsections
Phil Spector
2002-10-18