Editing Eval (section)

=== Perl ===
In [[Perl]], the <code>eval</code> function is something of a hybrid between an expression evaluator and a statement executor. It returns the result of the last expression evaluated (all statements are expressions in Perl programming), and allows the final semicolon to be left off.

Example as an expression evaluator:
<syntaxhighlight lang="perl">
$foo = 2;
print eval('$foo + 2'), "\n";
</syntaxhighlight>

Example as a statement executor:
<syntaxhighlight lang="perl">
$foo = 2;
eval('$foo += 2; print "$foo\n";');
</syntaxhighlight>

[[Perl]] also has <code>eval</code> ''blocks'', which serves as its [[exception handling]] mechanism (see [[Exception handling syntax#Perl]]). This differs from the above use of <code>eval</code> with strings in that code inside <code>eval</code> blocks is interpreted at compile-time instead of run-time, so it is not the meaning of <code>eval</code> used in this article.