4. Control Structures
The center of any imperative programming language is control structures.
Although Perl is not purely an imperative programming language, it has
ancestors that are very much imperative in nature, and thus Perl has
inherited those same control structures. It also has added a few of its
own.
As you begin to learn about Perl's control structures, realize that a
good number of them are syntactic sugar. You can survive using only a
subset of all the control structures that are available in Perl. You
should use those with which you are comfortable. Obey the "hubris" of
Perl, and write code that is readable. But, beyond that, do not use any
control structures that you do not think you need.