=head1 NAME
-perlfaq7 - Perl Language Issues ($Revision: 1.28 $, $Date: 1999/05/23 20:36:18 $)
+perlfaq7 - General Perl Language Issues ($Revision: 1.13 $, $Date: 2003/01/26 17:45:46 $)
=head1 DESCRIPTION
Note that <FILE> is I<neither> the type specifier for files
nor the name of the handle. It is the C<< <> >> operator applied
to the handle FILE. It reads one line (well, record--see
-L<perlvar/$/>) from the handle FILE in scalar context, or I<all> lines
+L<perlvar/$E<sol>>) from the handle FILE in scalar context, or I<all> lines
in list context. When performing open, close, or any other operation
besides C<< <> >> on files, or even when talking about the handle, do
I<not> use the brackets. These are correct: C<eof(FH)>, C<seek(FH, 0,
($dev, $ino, undef, undef, $uid, $gid) = stat($file);
+You can also use a list slice to select only the elements that
+you need:
+
+ ($dev, $ino, $uid, $gid) = ( stat($file) )[0,1,4,5];
+
=head2 How do I temporarily block warnings?
If you are running Perl 5.6.0 or better, the C<use warnings> pragma
you're writing a C or mixed-language module with both C and Perl, then
you should study L<perlxstut>.
-Here's a convenient template you might wish you use when starting your
-own module. Make sure to change the names appropriately.
-
- package Some::Module; # assumes Some/Module.pm
-
- use strict;
- use warnings;
-
- BEGIN {
- use Exporter ();
- our ($VERSION, @ISA, @EXPORT, @EXPORT_OK, %EXPORT_TAGS);
-
- ## set the version for version checking; uncomment to use
- ## $VERSION = 1.00;
-
- # if using RCS/CVS, this next line may be preferred,
- # but beware two-digit versions.
- $VERSION = do{my@r=q$Revision: 1.28 $=~/\d+/g;sprintf '%d.'.'%02d'x$#r,@r};
-
- @ISA = qw(Exporter);
- @EXPORT = qw(&func1 &func2 &func3);
- %EXPORT_TAGS = ( ); # eg: TAG => [ qw!name1 name2! ],
-
- # your exported package globals go here,
- # as well as any optionally exported functions
- @EXPORT_OK = qw($Var1 %Hashit);
- }
- our @EXPORT_OK;
-
- # exported package globals go here
- our $Var1;
- our %Hashit;
-
- # non-exported package globals go here
- our @more;
- our $stuff;
-
- # initialize package globals, first exported ones
- $Var1 = '';
- %Hashit = ();
-
- # then the others (which are still accessible as $Some::Module::stuff)
- $stuff = '';
- @more = ();
-
- # all file-scoped lexicals must be created before
- # the functions below that use them.
-
- # file-private lexicals go here
- my $priv_var = '';
- my %secret_hash = ();
-
- # here's a file-private function as a closure,
- # callable as &$priv_func; it cannot be prototyped.
- my $priv_func = sub {
- # stuff goes here.
- };
-
- # make all your functions, whether exported or not;
- # remember to put something interesting in the {} stubs
- sub func1 {} # no prototype
- sub func2() {} # proto'd void
- sub func3($$) {} # proto'd to 2 scalars
-
- # this one isn't exported, but could be called!
- sub func4(\%) {} # proto'd to 1 hash ref
-
- END { } # module clean-up code here (global destructor)
-
- 1; # modules must return true
-
-The h2xs program will create stubs for all the important stuff for you:
+The C<h2xs> program will create stubs for all the important stuff for you:
% h2xs -XA -n My::Module
+The C<-X> switch tells C<h2xs> that you are not using C<XS> extension
+code. The C<-A> switch tells C<h2xs> that you are not using the
+AutoLoader, and the C<-n> switch specifies the name of the module.
+See L<h2xs> for more details.
+
=head2 How do I create a class?
See L<perltoot> for an introduction to classes and objects, as well as
=head2 How can I tell if a variable is tainted?
-See L<perlsec/"Laundering and Detecting Tainted Data">. Here's an
-example (which doesn't use any system calls, because the kill()
-is given no processes to signal):
-
- sub is_tainted {
- return ! eval { join('',@_), kill 0; 1; };
- }
-
-This is not C<-w> clean, however. There is no C<-w> clean way to
-detect taintedness--take this as a hint that you should untaint
-all possibly-tainted data.
+You can use the tainted() function of the Scalar::Util module, available
+from CPAN (or included with Perl since release 5.8.0).
+See also L<perlsec/"Laundering and Detecting Tainted Data">.
=head2 What's a closure?
=item Passing Filehandles
-To pass filehandles to subroutines, use the C<*FH> or C<\*FH> notations.
-These are "typeglobs"--see L<perldata/"Typeglobs and Filehandles">
-and especially L<perlsub/"Pass by Reference"> for more information.
-
-Here's an excerpt:
+As of Perl 5.6, you can represent filehandles with scalar variables
+which you treat as any other scalar.
-If you're passing around filehandles, you could usually just use the bare
-typeglob, like *STDOUT, but typeglobs references would be better because
-they'll still work properly under C<use strict 'refs'>. For example:
+ open my $fh, $filename or die "Cannot open $filename! $!";
+ func( $fh );
- splutter(\*STDOUT);
- sub splutter {
- my $fh = shift;
- print $fh "her um well a hmmm\n";
- }
-
- $rec = get_rec(\*STDIN);
- sub get_rec {
- my $fh = shift;
- return scalar <$fh>;
- }
+ sub func {
+ my $passed_fh = shift;
-If you're planning on generating new filehandles, you could do this:
+ my $line = <$fh>;
+ }
- sub openit {
- my $path = shift;
- local *FH;
- return open (FH, $path) ? *FH : undef;
- }
- $fh = openit('< /etc/motd');
- print <$fh>;
+Before Perl 5.6, you had to use the C<*FH> or C<\*FH> notations.
+These are "typeglobs"--see L<perldata/"Typeglobs and Filehandles">
+and especially L<perlsub/"Pass by Reference"> for more information.
=item Passing Regexes
variables. It gives a global variable a temporary value. my() is
what you're looking for if you want private variables.
-See L<perlsub/"Private Variables via my()"> and
+See L<perlsub/"Private Variables via my()"> and
L<perlsub/"Temporary Values via local()"> for excruciating details.
=head2 How can I access a dynamic variable while a similarly named lexical is in scope?
-You can do this via symbolic references, provided you haven't set
-C<use strict "refs">. So instead of $var, use C<${'var'}>.
+If you know your package, you can just mention it explicitly, as in
+$Some_Pack::var. Note that the notation $::var is B<not> the dynamic $var
+in the current package, but rather the one in the "main" package, as
+though you had written $main::var.
- local $var = "global";
- my $var = "lexical";
+ use vars '$var';
+ local $var = "global";
+ my $var = "lexical";
- print "lexical is $var\n";
+ print "lexical is $var\n";
+ print "global is $main::var\n";
- no strict 'refs';
- print "global is ${'var'}\n";
+Alternatively you can use the compiler directive our() to bring a
+dynamic variable into the current lexical scope.
-If you know your package, you can just mention it explicitly, as in
-$Some_Pack::var. Note that the notation $::var is I<not> the dynamic
-$var in the current package, but rather the one in the C<main>
-package, as though you had written $main::var. Specifying the package
-directly makes you hard-code its name, but it executes faster and
-avoids running afoul of C<use strict "refs">.
+ require 5.006; # our() did not exist before 5.6
+ use vars '$var';
+
+ local $var = "global";
+ my $var = "lexical";
+
+ print "lexical is $var\n";
+
+ {
+ our $var;
+ print "global is $var\n";
+ }
=head2 What's the difference between deep and shallow binding?
are effectively shallowly bound. Consider this just one more reason
not to use them. See the answer to L<"What's a closure?">.
-=head2 Why doesn't "my($foo) = <FILE>;" work right?
+=head2 Why doesn't "my($foo) = E<lt>FILEE<gt>;" work right?
C<my()> and C<local()> give list context to the right hand side
of C<=>. The <FH> read operation, like so many of Perl's
elsif (/pat2/) { } # do something else
elsif (/pat3/) { } # do something else
else { } # default
- }
+ }
Here's a simple example of a switch based on pattern matching, this
time lined up in a way to make it look more like a switch statement.
-We'll do a multi-way conditional based on the type of reference stored
+We'll do a multiway conditional based on the type of reference stored
in $whatchamacallit:
SWITCH: for (ref $whatchamacallit) {
}
-See C<perlsyn/"Basic BLOCKs and Switch Statements"> for many other
+See C<perlsyn/"Basic BLOCKs and Switch Statements"> for many other
examples in this style.
Sometimes you should change the positions of the constant and the variable.
elsif ("LIST" =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is list\n" }
elsif ("EDIT" =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is edit\n" }
-A totally different approach is to create a hash of function references.
+A totally different approach is to create a hash of function references.
my %commands = (
"happy" => \&joy,
$commands{$string}->();
} else {
print "No such command: $string\n";
- }
+ }
-=head2 How can I catch accesses to undefined variables/functions/methods?
+=head2 How can I catch accesses to undefined variables, functions, or methods?
The AUTOLOAD method, discussed in L<perlsub/"Autoloading"> and
L<perltoot/"AUTOLOAD: Proxy Methods">, lets you capture calls to
undefined functions and methods.
When it comes to undefined variables that would trigger a warning
-under C<-w>, you can use a handler to trap the pseudo-signal
-C<__WARN__> like this:
-
- $SIG{__WARN__} = sub {
-
- for ( $_[0] ) { # voici un switch statement
+under C<use warnings>, you can promote the warning to an error.
- /Use of uninitialized value/ && do {
- # promote warning to a fatal
- die $_;
- };
-
- # other warning cases to catch could go here;
-
- warn $_;
- }
-
- };
+ use warnings FATAL => qw(uninitialized);
=head2 Why can't a method included in this same file be found?
=head2 How can I comment out a large block of perl code?
-Use embedded POD to discard it:
+You can use embedded POD to discard it. The =for directive
+lasts until the next paragraph (two consecutive newlines).
# program is here
# program continues
+The =begin and =end directives can contain multiple
+paragraphs.
+
=begin comment text
all of this stuff
=end comment text
- =cut
+The pod directives cannot go just anywhere. You must put a
+pod directive where the parser is expecting a new statement,
+not just in the middle of an expression or some other
+arbitrary s grammar production.
-This can't go just anywhere. You have to put a pod directive where
-the parser is expecting a new statement, not just in the middle
-of an expression or some other arbitrary yacc grammar production.
+See L<perlpod> for more details.
=head2 How do I clear a package?
sub scrub_package {
no strict 'refs';
my $pack = shift;
- die "Shouldn't delete main package"
+ die "Shouldn't delete main package"
if $pack eq "" || $pack eq "main";
my $stash = *{$pack . '::'}{HASH};
my $name;
}
}
-Or, if you're using a recent release of Perl, you can
+Or, if you're using a recent release of Perl, you can
just use the Symbol::delete_package() function instead.
=head2 How can I use a variable as a variable name?
$name = "fred";
$$name{WIFE} = "wilma"; # set %fred
- $name = "barney";
+ $name = "barney";
$$name{WIFE} = "betty"; # set %barney
This is still a symbolic reference, and is still saddled with the
for my $name (@colors) {
no strict 'refs'; # renege for the block
*$name = sub { "<FONT COLOR='$name'>@_</FONT>" };
- }
+ }
All those functions (red(), blue(), green(), etc.) appear to be separate,
but the real code in the closure actually was compiled only once.
=head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
-Copyright (c) 1997-1999 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
+Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
All rights reserved.
-When included as part of the Standard Version of Perl, or as part of
-its complete documentation whether printed or otherwise, this work
-may be distributed only under the terms of Perl's Artistic License.
-Any distribution of this file or derivatives thereof I<outside>
-of that package require that special arrangements be made with
-copyright holder.
+This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+under the same terms as Perl itself.
Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples in this file
are hereby placed into the public domain. You are permitted and
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff