3.2.193 write

write FILEHANDLE
write

This function writes a formatted record (possibly multi-line) to the specified filehandle, using the format associated with that filehandle - see the section "Formats" in Chapter 2. By default the format for a filehandle is the one having the same name as the filehandle. However, the format for a filehandle may be changed by saying:

use FileHandle;
HANDLE->format_name("NEWNAME");

Top-of-form processing is handled automatically: if there is insufficient room on the current page for the formatted record, the page is advanced by writing a form feed, a special top-of-page format is used to format the new page header, and then the record is written. The number of lines remaining on the current page is in variable $-, which can be set to 0 to force a new page on the next write. (You may need to select the filehandle first.) By default the name of the top-of-page format is the name of the filehandle with "_TOP" appended, but the format for a filehandle may be changed by saying:

use FileHandle;
HANDLE->format_top_name("NEWNAME_TOP");

If FILEHANDLE is unspecified, output goes to the current default output filehandle, which starts out as STDOUT but may be changed by the select operator. If the FILEHANDLE is an expression, then the expression is evaluated to determine the actual FILEHANDLE at run-time.

Note that write is not the opposite of read. Use print for simple string output. If you looked up this entry because you wanted to bypass standard I/O, see syswrite.