Arithmetic Operators
Binary ** is the
exponentiation operator. Note that it binds even more tightly than
unary minus, so -2**4 is -(2**4), not (-2)**4. Also note that ** has right associativity, so:
$e = 2 ** 3 ** 4;
evaluates to 2 to the 81st power, not 8 to the 4th power.
The * (multiply)
and / (divide) operators work
exactly as you might expect, multiplying or dividing their two
operands. Division is done in floating-point mode, unless integer
mode in enabled (via use
integer).
The % (modulus)
operator converts its operands to integers before finding the
remainder according to integer division. For the same operation in
floating-point mode, you may prefer to use the fmod( ) function from the POSIX module
(see Chapter 8).