How can I use simple HTML output in a perl script?

Question

I am working on an assignment where I must use an HTML font tag to change the font color of an perl output statement. I've followed the direction in the assignment, and this is what the code looks like:

print $FILE2 "<font color = 'red'> var1 </font>";

$FILE2 is the filehandle for the file I am writing to. Var1, Var1 is a test variables. However, there is no color change and the syntax above is printed exactly like that to the screen. I'm not really sure what I am doing, wrong, can somebody please help me? I have not included any headers other than strict and warnings.

"no color change and the syntax above is printed exactly like that to the screen" — Try looking at the output in a web browser instead of a text editor or the console. — Quentin
– Quentin, Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 22:38
"an assignment where I must use an HTML font tag" — You need to find a better course. This approach was obsoleted by CSS 1 over two decades ago. — Quentin
– Quentin, Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 22:39

Grinnz · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-03 22:36:25Z

1

Variables in Perl are always indicated by sigils. In this case you are dealing with scalars (single value container), and the sigil for a scalar variable is $. This sigil is also what allows it to be interpolated (replaced with its value) in a double-quoted string like you have. See perldata for more info.

As a side note, interpolating variables directly into HTML can be dangerous because they can contain HTML tags. If you want to avoid the possibility of the input adding tags of its own, pass the input through an HTML-escaper like encode_entities from HTML::Entities or xml_escape from Mojo::Util first. The usual way to construct HTML like this is with templates, and templating modules often provide such functionality built in.

answered Dec 3, 2018 at 22:36

Grinnz

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2 Comments

Quentin Over a year ago

While true, this doesn't answer the question (which is about getting the HTML to be parsed as HTML instead of displayed as plain text, not about interpolating variables).

Grinnz Over a year ago

@Quentin That's unclear; the example code presented clearly does not interpolate the variable correctly, which may be at least part of the issue.

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