=head1 NAME
-perlfaq4 - Data Manipulation ($Revision: 1.21 $, $Date: 2002/05/06 13:08:46 $)
+perlfaq4 - Data Manipulation ($Revision: 1.25 $, $Date: 2002/05/30 07:04:25 $)
=head1 DESCRIPTION
optimized for speed on some operations, and for at least some
programmers the notation might be familiar.
-=item B<How do I convert hexadecimal into decimal:>
+=over 4
+
+=item How do I convert hexadecimal into decimal
Using perl's built in conversion of 0x notation:
$vec = Bit::Vector->new_Hex(32, "DEADBEEF");
$dec = $vec->to_Dec();
-=item B<How do I convert from decimal to hexadecimal:>
+=item How do I convert from decimal to hexadecimal
Using sprint:
$vec->Resize(32); # suppress leading 0 if unwanted
$hex = $vec->to_Hex();
-=item B<How do I convert from octal to decimal:>
+=item How do I convert from octal to decimal
Using Perl's built in conversion of numbers with leading zeros:
$vec->Chunk_List_Store(3, split(//, reverse "33653337357"));
$dec = $vec->to_Dec();
-=item B<How do I convert from decimal to octal:>
+=item How do I convert from decimal to octal
Using sprintf:
$vec = Bit::Vector->new_Dec(32, -559038737);
$oct = reverse join('', $vec->Chunk_List_Read(3));
-=item B<How do I convert from binary to decimal:>
+=item How do I convert from binary to decimal
Perl 5.6 lets you write binary numbers directly with
the 0b notation:
$vec = Bit::Vector->new_Bin(32, "11011110101011011011111011101111");
$dec = $vec->to_Dec();
-=item B<How do I convert from decimal to binary:>
+=item How do I convert from decimal to binary
Using unpack;
The remaining transformations (e.g. hex -> oct, bin -> hex, etc.)
are left as an exercise to the inclined reader.
+=back
=head2 Why doesn't & work the way I want it to?
$_ *= (4/3) * 3.14159; # this will be constant folded
}
-If you want to do the same thing to modify the values of the hash,
-you may not use the C<values> function, oddly enough. You need a slice:
+If you want to do the same thing to modify the values of the
+hash, you can use the C<values> function. As of Perl 5.6
+the values are not copied, so if you modify $orbit (in this
+case), you modify the value.
- for $orbit ( @orbits{keys %orbits} ) {
+ for $orbit ( values %orbits ) {
($orbit **= 3) *= (4/3) * 3.14159;
}
+Prior to perl 5.6 C<values> returned copies of the values,
+so older perl code often contains constructions such as
+C<@orbits{keys %orbits}> instead of C<values %orbits> where
+the hash is to be modified.
+
=head2 How do I select a random element from an array?
Use the rand() function (see L<perlfunc/rand>):
This method gets faster the more sparse the bit vector is.
(Courtesy of Tim Bunce and Winfried Koenig.)
+You can make the while loop a lot shorter with this suggestion
+from Benjamin Goldberg:
+
+ while($vec =~ /[^\0]+/g ) {
+ push @ints, grep vec($vec, $_, 1), $-[0] * 8 .. $+[0] * 8;
+ }
+
Or use the CPAN module Bit::Vector:
$vector = Bit::Vector->new($num_of_bits);
=head2 What's the difference between "delete" and "undef" with hashes?
-Hashes are pairs of scalars: the first is the key, the second is the
-value. The key will be coerced to a string, although the value can be
-any kind of scalar: string, number, or reference. If a key C<$key> is
-present in the array, C<exists($key)> will return true. The value for
-a given key can be C<undef>, in which case C<$array{$key}> will be
-C<undef> while C<$exists{$key}> will return true. This corresponds to
-(C<$key>, C<undef>) being in the hash.
+Hashes contain pairs of scalars: the first is the key, the
+second is the value. The key will be coerced to a string,
+although the value can be any kind of scalar: string,
+number, or reference. If a key $key is present in
+%hash, C<exists($hash{$key})> will return true. The value
+for a given key can be C<undef>, in which case
+C<$hash{$key}> will be C<undef> while C<exists $hash{$key}>
+will return true. This corresponds to (C<$key>, C<undef>)
+being in the hash.
-Pictures help... here's the C<%ary> table:
+Pictures help... here's the %hash table:
keys values
+------+------+
And these conditions hold
- $ary{'a'} is true
- $ary{'d'} is false
- defined $ary{'d'} is true
- defined $ary{'a'} is true
- exists $ary{'a'} is true (Perl5 only)
- grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %ary) is true
+ $hash{'a'} is true
+ $hash{'d'} is false
+ defined $hash{'d'} is true
+ defined $hash{'a'} is true
+ exists $hash{'a'} is true (Perl5 only)
+ grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %hash) is true
If you now say
- undef $ary{'a'}
+ undef $hash{'a'}
your table now reads:
and these conditions now hold; changes in caps:
- $ary{'a'} is FALSE
- $ary{'d'} is false
- defined $ary{'d'} is true
- defined $ary{'a'} is FALSE
- exists $ary{'a'} is true (Perl5 only)
- grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %ary) is true
+ $hash{'a'} is FALSE
+ $hash{'d'} is false
+ defined $hash{'d'} is true
+ defined $hash{'a'} is FALSE
+ exists $hash{'a'} is true (Perl5 only)
+ grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %hash) is true
Notice the last two: you have an undef value, but a defined key!
Now, consider this:
- delete $ary{'a'}
+ delete $hash{'a'}
your table now reads:
and these conditions now hold; changes in caps:
- $ary{'a'} is false
- $ary{'d'} is false
- defined $ary{'d'} is true
- defined $ary{'a'} is false
- exists $ary{'a'} is FALSE (Perl5 only)
- grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %ary) is FALSE
+ $hash{'a'} is false
+ $hash{'d'} is false
+ defined $hash{'d'} is true
+ defined $hash{'a'} is false
+ exists $hash{'a'} is FALSE (Perl5 only)
+ grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %hash) is FALSE
See, the whole entry is gone!
=head2 Why don't my tied hashes make the defined/exists distinction?
-They may or may not implement the EXISTS() and DEFINED() methods
-differently. For example, there isn't the concept of undef with hashes
-that are tied to DBM* files. This means the true/false tables above
-will give different results when used on such a hash. It also means
-that exists and defined do the same thing with a DBM* file, and what
-they end up doing is not what they do with ordinary hashes.
+This depends on the tied hash's implementation of EXISTS().
+For example, there isn't the concept of undef with hashes
+that are tied to DBM* files. It also means that exists() and
+defined() do the same thing with a DBM* file, and what they
+end up doing is not what they do with ordinary hashes.
=head2 How do I reset an each() operation part-way through?
if (/^([+-]?)(?=\d|\.\d)\d*(\.\d*)?([Ee]([+-]?\d+))?$/)
{ print "a C float\n" }
+You can also use the L<Data::Types|Data::Types> module on
+the CPAN, which exports functions that validate data types
+using these and other regular expressions.
+
If you're on a POSIX system, Perl's supports the C<POSIX::strtod>
function. Its semantics are somewhat cumbersome, so here's a C<getnum>
wrapper function for more convenient access. This function takes
sub is_numeric { defined getnum($_[0]) }
-Or you could check out the String::Scanf module on CPAN instead. The
-POSIX module (part of the standard Perl distribution) provides the
-C<strtod> and C<strtol> for converting strings to double and longs,
+Or you could check out the L<String::Scanf|String::Scanf> module on the CPAN
+instead. The POSIX module (part of the standard Perl distribution) provides
+the C<strtod> and C<strtol> for converting strings to double and longs,
respectively.
=head2 How do I keep persistent data across program calls?