Perl | tell() Function

tell() function in Perl is used to get the position of the read pointer in a File with the use of its FileHandle. If no FileHandle is passed then it returns the position within the most recent accessed file.

Syntax: tell(FileHandle)

Parameter:
FileHandle: Filehandle of the file to be accessed.

Returns: the current position of the read pointer

Example 1:

#!/usr/bin/perl

# Opening a File in Read-only mode
open(fh, "<", "Hello.txt");

$position = tell(fh);
print("Position of read pointer before reading: $position");

# Reading first 10 characters from the file
for($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++)
{
    $ch = getc(fh);
}

$position = tell(fh);

# Current position of the read pointer
print("\nCurrent Position: $position");

# Closing the File
close(fh);

Output:

Example 2:

#!/usr/bin/perl

# Opening a File in Read-only mode
open(fh, "<", "Hello.txt");

$position = tell(fh);
print("Position of read pointer before reading: $position\n");

# Printing First 10 Characters
print("First ten characters are: ");

# Reading and printing first
# 10 characters from the file
for($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++)
{
    $ch = getc(fh);
    print" $ch";
}

$position = tell(fh);

# Current position of the read pointer
print("\nCurrent Position: $position");

# Closing the File
close(fh);

Output: