So often, newcomers to programming try to use an "x" operator to multiply - and it doesn't work; they should use "*" in most languages. In Perl ... "x" means something different ... "replicate the string on the left the number of times on the right".

I've frequently been asked for a good example of where "x" is useful. Here's one - printing out the corret number of "-" signs to underline a title in a fixed width font.

print "who are you";
$name = <STDIN>;
chop $name;

print "$name\n";
print "-" x length ($name),"\n";

Further details in our Initial String Handling module

(written 2005-03-22, updated 2006-06-05)

 P205 - Perl - Initial String Handling
  [3548] Dark mornings, dog update, and Python and Lua courses before Christmas - (2011-12-10)
  [3547] Using Perl to generate multiple reports from a HUGE file, efficiently - (2011-12-09)
  [3411] Single and double quotes strings in Perl - what is the difference? - (2011-08-30)
  [3005] Lots of ways of doing it in Perl - printing out answers - (2010-10-19)
  [2963] Removing the new line with chop or chomp in Perl - what is the difference? - (2010-09-21)
  [2832] Are you learning Perl? Some more examples for you! - (2010-06-27)
  [2816] Intelligent Matching in Perl - (2010-06-18)
  [2798] Perl - skip the classics and use regular expressions - (2010-06-08)
  [1860] Seven new intermediate Perl examples - (2008-10-30)
  [1849] String matching in Perl with Regular Expressions - (2008-10-20)
  [1608] Underlining in Perl and Python - the x and * operator in use - (2008-04-12)
  [1195] Regular Express Primer - (2007-05-20)
  [987] Ruby v Perl - interpollating variables - (2006-12-15)
  [970] String duplication - x in Perl, * in Python and Ruby - (2006-12-07)
  [324] The backtick operator in Python and Perl - (2005-05-25)
  [31] Here documents - (2004-08-28)

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Easter at Well House Consultants
Politics gets nasty. Must be an election coming up.
Spring is in the air
STDIN, STDOUT, STDERR and DATA - Perl file handles
x operator in Perl
Finding the right holes
A West End show
WIBNIF
We dont stand still
An easy way out