Formats

• formline picture, list
• Formats list according to picture and accumulates the result into $^A.
• write [ filehandle ]
• Writes a formatted record to the specified file, using the format associated with that file.

Formats are defined as follows:

format [ name ] = formlist . 

formlist pictures the lines, and contains the arguments that will give values to the fields in the lines. name defaults to STDOUT if omitted.

Picture fields are:

Use ^ instead of @ for multiline block filling.

Use ~ at the beginning of a line to suppress unwanted empty lines.

Use ~~ at the beginning of a line to have this format line repeated until all fields are exhausted.

Set $- to zero to force a page break on the next write.

See also $^, $~, $^A, $^F, $-, and $= in the section called "Special Variables".