perl function format

The format function in Perl is used for formatting output in a fixed-width format. It allows you to define a layout for your output, specifying the width and alignment of each field, and then write data to that layout using the write function.

Here's an example of using format in Perl:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

# Define the format
format MYFORMAT =
Name:        @<<<<<<<<<<
$last_name, $first_name
Age:         @##
$age
Address:     @|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
$address
.

# Set up some data
my $first_name = "John";
my $last_name = "Doe";
my $age = 42;
my $address = "123 Main St, Anytown, USA";

# Write the data to the format
write;

In this example, we define a format called MYFORMAT using the format function. The format consists of three lines, each of which defines a field and its width and alignment.

The first line defines a field called Name, which is left-aligned (@<<<<<<<<<) and has a width of 10 characters. The second line defines a field called Age, which is right-aligned (@##) and has a width of 2 characters. The third line defines a field called Address, which is centered (@|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||) and has a width of 70 characters.

After defining the format, we set up some data for output, and then call the write function to output the data in the format. The write function uses the MYFORMAT format that we defined to format the output.

When you run this script, you'll see output like this:

Name:        John Doe
Age:         42
Address:            123 Main St, Anytown, USA

Note that the output is aligned according to the widths and alignments specified in the format definition.