A scalar variable contains a single value. In perl the name of a scalar starts with a ``$'' and continues with a letter or underscore, ``_'', and as many letters, numbers, or underscores as you need. You can set a scalar to a value by:
$big_number = 57223452948 ; $an_even_bigger_number = $big_number + 1 ; $artist = "Renoir" ; $location = "Longfellow School is at Derby and Sacramento" ;