Perl - How do I escape/encode special characters

Question

I'm writing a script for IRC and sometimes I might need to use a color. Normally I do it this way

my $C = chr(3);

$C is the control code used for color but I've seen some other script that escapes it something like "\x\v...". How do I get the correct encoded version of that? I tried Data::Dumper but I didn't find it. I hope this question makes sense.

Answer 1

The way to specify chr(3) with a hexadecimal escape code is to use:

print "\x03\n";

or, in octal:

print "\003\n";

or, as a control code:

print "\cC\n";

See perldoc perlop:

The following escape sequences are available in constructs that interpolate and in transliterations.

1. \t tab (HT, TAB)
2. \n newline (NL)
3. \r return (CR)
4. \f form feed (FF)
5. \b backspace (BS)
6. \a alarm (bell) (BEL)
7. \e escape (ESC)
8. \033 octal char (example: ESC)
9. \x1b hex char (example: ESC)
10. \x{263a} wide hex char (example: SMILEY)
11. \c[ control char (example: ESC)
12. \N{name} named Unicode character