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68dc0745 | 1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
28b41a80 | 3 | perlfaq7 - General Perl Language Issues ($Revision: 1.18 $, $Date: 2004/11/03 22:54:08 $) |
68dc0745 | 4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
6 | ||
7 | This section deals with general Perl language issues that don't | |
8 | clearly fit into any of the other sections. | |
9 | ||
10 | =head2 Can I get a BNF/yacc/RE for the Perl language? | |
11 | ||
c8db1d39 TC |
12 | There is no BNF, but you can paw your way through the yacc grammar in |
13 | perly.y in the source distribution if you're particularly brave. The | |
14 | grammar relies on very smart tokenizing code, so be prepared to | |
15 | venture into toke.c as well. | |
16 | ||
17 | In the words of Chaim Frenkel: "Perl's grammar can not be reduced to BNF. | |
18 | The work of parsing perl is distributed between yacc, the lexer, smoke | |
19 | and mirrors." | |
68dc0745 | 20 | |
d92eb7b0 | 21 | =head2 What are all these $@%&* punctuation signs, and how do I know when to use them? |
68dc0745 | 22 | |
23 | They are type specifiers, as detailed in L<perldata>: | |
24 | ||
25 | $ for scalar values (number, string or reference) | |
26 | @ for arrays | |
27 | % for hashes (associative arrays) | |
d92eb7b0 | 28 | & for subroutines (aka functions, procedures, methods) |
68dc0745 | 29 | * for all types of that symbol name. In version 4 you used them like |
30 | pointers, but in modern perls you can just use references. | |
31 | ||
a6dd486b JB |
32 | There are couple of other symbols that you're likely to encounter that aren't |
33 | really type specifiers: | |
68dc0745 | 34 | |
35 | <> are used for inputting a record from a filehandle. | |
36 | \ takes a reference to something. | |
37 | ||
c47ff5f1 GS |
38 | Note that <FILE> is I<neither> the type specifier for files |
39 | nor the name of the handle. It is the C<< <> >> operator applied | |
a6dd486b | 40 | to the handle FILE. It reads one line (well, record--see |
197aec24 | 41 | L<perlvar/$E<sol>>) from the handle FILE in scalar context, or I<all> lines |
68dc0745 | 42 | in list context. When performing open, close, or any other operation |
a6dd486b | 43 | besides C<< <> >> on files, or even when talking about the handle, do |
68dc0745 | 44 | I<not> use the brackets. These are correct: C<eof(FH)>, C<seek(FH, 0, |
45 | 2)> and "copying from STDIN to FILE". | |
46 | ||
47 | =head2 Do I always/never have to quote my strings or use semicolons and commas? | |
48 | ||
49 | Normally, a bareword doesn't need to be quoted, but in most cases | |
50 | probably should be (and must be under C<use strict>). But a hash key | |
51 | consisting of a simple word (that isn't the name of a defined | |
c47ff5f1 | 52 | subroutine) and the left-hand operand to the C<< => >> operator both |
68dc0745 | 53 | count as though they were quoted: |
54 | ||
55 | This is like this | |
56 | ------------ --------------- | |
57 | $foo{line} $foo{"line"} | |
58 | bar => stuff "bar" => stuff | |
59 | ||
60 | The final semicolon in a block is optional, as is the final comma in a | |
61 | list. Good style (see L<perlstyle>) says to put them in except for | |
62 | one-liners: | |
63 | ||
64 | if ($whoops) { exit 1 } | |
65 | @nums = (1, 2, 3); | |
66 | ||
67 | if ($whoops) { | |
68 | exit 1; | |
69 | } | |
70 | @lines = ( | |
71 | "There Beren came from mountains cold", | |
72 | "And lost he wandered under leaves", | |
73 | ); | |
74 | ||
75 | =head2 How do I skip some return values? | |
76 | ||
77 | One way is to treat the return values as a list and index into it: | |
78 | ||
79 | $dir = (getpwnam($user))[7]; | |
80 | ||
81 | Another way is to use undef as an element on the left-hand-side: | |
82 | ||
83 | ($dev, $ino, undef, undef, $uid, $gid) = stat($file); | |
197aec24 | 84 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
85 | You can also use a list slice to select only the elements that |
86 | you need: | |
87 | ||
88 | ($dev, $ino, $uid, $gid) = ( stat($file) )[0,1,4,5]; | |
68dc0745 | 89 | |
90 | =head2 How do I temporarily block warnings? | |
91 | ||
9f1b1f2d GS |
92 | If you are running Perl 5.6.0 or better, the C<use warnings> pragma |
93 | allows fine control of what warning are produced. | |
94 | See L<perllexwarn> for more details. | |
95 | ||
96 | { | |
97 | no warnings; # temporarily turn off warnings | |
98 | $a = $b + $c; # I know these might be undef | |
99 | } | |
28b41a80 RGS |
100 | |
101 | Additionally, you can enable and disable categories of warnings. | |
102 | You turn off the categories you want to ignore and you can still | |
103 | get other categories of warnings. See L<perllexwarn> for the | |
104 | complete details, including the category names and hierarchy. | |
105 | ||
106 | { | |
107 | no warnings 'uninitialized'; | |
108 | $a = $b + $c; | |
109 | } | |
9f1b1f2d GS |
110 | |
111 | If you have an older version of Perl, the C<$^W> variable (documented | |
112 | in L<perlvar>) controls runtime warnings for a block: | |
68dc0745 | 113 | |
114 | { | |
115 | local $^W = 0; # temporarily turn off warnings | |
116 | $a = $b + $c; # I know these might be undef | |
117 | } | |
118 | ||
119 | Note that like all the punctuation variables, you cannot currently | |
120 | use my() on C<$^W>, only local(). | |
121 | ||
68dc0745 | 122 | =head2 What's an extension? |
123 | ||
a6dd486b JB |
124 | An extension is a way of calling compiled C code from Perl. Reading |
125 | L<perlxstut> is a good place to learn more about extensions. | |
68dc0745 | 126 | |
127 | =head2 Why do Perl operators have different precedence than C operators? | |
128 | ||
129 | Actually, they don't. All C operators that Perl copies have the same | |
130 | precedence in Perl as they do in C. The problem is with operators that C | |
131 | doesn't have, especially functions that give a list context to everything | |
a6dd486b | 132 | on their right, eg. print, chmod, exec, and so on. Such functions are |
68dc0745 | 133 | called "list operators" and appear as such in the precedence table in |
134 | L<perlop>. | |
135 | ||
136 | A common mistake is to write: | |
137 | ||
138 | unlink $file || die "snafu"; | |
139 | ||
140 | This gets interpreted as: | |
141 | ||
142 | unlink ($file || die "snafu"); | |
143 | ||
144 | To avoid this problem, either put in extra parentheses or use the | |
145 | super low precedence C<or> operator: | |
146 | ||
147 | (unlink $file) || die "snafu"; | |
148 | unlink $file or die "snafu"; | |
149 | ||
150 | The "English" operators (C<and>, C<or>, C<xor>, and C<not>) | |
151 | deliberately have precedence lower than that of list operators for | |
152 | just such situations as the one above. | |
153 | ||
154 | Another operator with surprising precedence is exponentiation. It | |
155 | binds more tightly even than unary minus, making C<-2**2> product a | |
156 | negative not a positive four. It is also right-associating, meaning | |
157 | that C<2**3**2> is two raised to the ninth power, not eight squared. | |
158 | ||
c8db1d39 TC |
159 | Although it has the same precedence as in C, Perl's C<?:> operator |
160 | produces an lvalue. This assigns $x to either $a or $b, depending | |
161 | on the trueness of $maybe: | |
162 | ||
163 | ($maybe ? $a : $b) = $x; | |
164 | ||
68dc0745 | 165 | =head2 How do I declare/create a structure? |
166 | ||
167 | In general, you don't "declare" a structure. Just use a (probably | |
168 | anonymous) hash reference. See L<perlref> and L<perldsc> for details. | |
169 | Here's an example: | |
170 | ||
171 | $person = {}; # new anonymous hash | |
172 | $person->{AGE} = 24; # set field AGE to 24 | |
173 | $person->{NAME} = "Nat"; # set field NAME to "Nat" | |
174 | ||
175 | If you're looking for something a bit more rigorous, try L<perltoot>. | |
176 | ||
177 | =head2 How do I create a module? | |
178 | ||
179 | A module is a package that lives in a file of the same name. For | |
180 | example, the Hello::There module would live in Hello/There.pm. For | |
181 | details, read L<perlmod>. You'll also find L<Exporter> helpful. If | |
182 | you're writing a C or mixed-language module with both C and Perl, then | |
183 | you should study L<perlxstut>. | |
184 | ||
6761e064 | 185 | The C<h2xs> program will create stubs for all the important stuff for you: |
65acb1b1 TC |
186 | |
187 | % h2xs -XA -n My::Module | |
7207e29d | 188 | |
6761e064 JH |
189 | The C<-X> switch tells C<h2xs> that you are not using C<XS> extension |
190 | code. The C<-A> switch tells C<h2xs> that you are not using the | |
191 | AutoLoader, and the C<-n> switch specifies the name of the module. | |
192 | See L<h2xs> for more details. | |
65acb1b1 | 193 | |
68dc0745 | 194 | =head2 How do I create a class? |
195 | ||
196 | See L<perltoot> for an introduction to classes and objects, as well as | |
197 | L<perlobj> and L<perlbot>. | |
198 | ||
199 | =head2 How can I tell if a variable is tainted? | |
200 | ||
213329dd JH |
201 | You can use the tainted() function of the Scalar::Util module, available |
202 | from CPAN (or included with Perl since release 5.8.0). | |
203 | See also L<perlsec/"Laundering and Detecting Tainted Data">. | |
68dc0745 | 204 | |
205 | =head2 What's a closure? | |
206 | ||
207 | Closures are documented in L<perlref>. | |
208 | ||
209 | I<Closure> is a computer science term with a precise but | |
210 | hard-to-explain meaning. Closures are implemented in Perl as anonymous | |
211 | subroutines with lasting references to lexical variables outside their | |
212 | own scopes. These lexicals magically refer to the variables that were | |
213 | around when the subroutine was defined (deep binding). | |
214 | ||
215 | Closures make sense in any programming language where you can have the | |
216 | return value of a function be itself a function, as you can in Perl. | |
217 | Note that some languages provide anonymous functions but are not | |
a6dd486b | 218 | capable of providing proper closures: the Python language, for |
68dc0745 | 219 | example. For more information on closures, check out any textbook on |
220 | functional programming. Scheme is a language that not only supports | |
221 | but encourages closures. | |
222 | ||
223 | Here's a classic function-generating function: | |
224 | ||
225 | sub add_function_generator { | |
c98c5709 | 226 | return sub { shift() + shift() }; |
68dc0745 | 227 | } |
228 | ||
229 | $add_sub = add_function_generator(); | |
c8db1d39 | 230 | $sum = $add_sub->(4,5); # $sum is 9 now. |
68dc0745 | 231 | |
232 | The closure works as a I<function template> with some customization | |
233 | slots left out to be filled later. The anonymous subroutine returned | |
234 | by add_function_generator() isn't technically a closure because it | |
235 | refers to no lexicals outside its own scope. | |
236 | ||
237 | Contrast this with the following make_adder() function, in which the | |
238 | returned anonymous function contains a reference to a lexical variable | |
239 | outside the scope of that function itself. Such a reference requires | |
240 | that Perl return a proper closure, thus locking in for all time the | |
241 | value that the lexical had when the function was created. | |
242 | ||
243 | sub make_adder { | |
244 | my $addpiece = shift; | |
c98c5709 | 245 | return sub { shift() + $addpiece }; |
68dc0745 | 246 | } |
247 | ||
248 | $f1 = make_adder(20); | |
249 | $f2 = make_adder(555); | |
250 | ||
251 | Now C<&$f1($n)> is always 20 plus whatever $n you pass in, whereas | |
252 | C<&$f2($n)> is always 555 plus whatever $n you pass in. The $addpiece | |
253 | in the closure sticks around. | |
254 | ||
255 | Closures are often used for less esoteric purposes. For example, when | |
256 | you want to pass in a bit of code into a function: | |
257 | ||
258 | my $line; | |
259 | timeout( 30, sub { $line = <STDIN> } ); | |
260 | ||
c47ff5f1 GS |
261 | If the code to execute had been passed in as a string, |
262 | C<< '$line = <STDIN>' >>, there would have been no way for the | |
263 | hypothetical timeout() function to access the lexical variable | |
264 | $line back in its caller's scope. | |
68dc0745 | 265 | |
46fc3d4c | 266 | =head2 What is variable suicide and how can I prevent it? |
267 | ||
268 | Variable suicide is when you (temporarily or permanently) lose the | |
269 | value of a variable. It is caused by scoping through my() and local() | |
368c9434 | 270 | interacting with either closures or aliased foreach() iterator |
46fc3d4c | 271 | variables and subroutine arguments. It used to be easy to |
272 | inadvertently lose a variable's value this way, but now it's much | |
273 | harder. Take this code: | |
274 | ||
275 | my $f = "foo"; | |
276 | sub T { | |
277 | while ($i++ < 3) { my $f = $f; $f .= "bar"; print $f, "\n" } | |
278 | } | |
279 | T; | |
280 | print "Finally $f\n"; | |
281 | ||
282 | The $f that has "bar" added to it three times should be a new C<$f> | |
d92eb7b0 GS |
283 | (C<my $f> should create a new local variable each time through the loop). |
284 | It isn't, however. This was a bug, now fixed in the latest releases | |
285 | (tested against 5.004_05, 5.005_03, and 5.005_56). | |
46fc3d4c | 286 | |
d92eb7b0 | 287 | =head2 How can I pass/return a {Function, FileHandle, Array, Hash, Method, Regex}? |
68dc0745 | 288 | |
d92eb7b0 | 289 | With the exception of regexes, you need to pass references to these |
68dc0745 | 290 | objects. See L<perlsub/"Pass by Reference"> for this particular |
291 | question, and L<perlref> for information on references. | |
292 | ||
a6dd486b JB |
293 | See ``Passing Regexes'', below, for information on passing regular |
294 | expressions. | |
295 | ||
68dc0745 | 296 | =over 4 |
297 | ||
298 | =item Passing Variables and Functions | |
299 | ||
a6dd486b | 300 | Regular variables and functions are quite easy to pass: just pass in a |
68dc0745 | 301 | reference to an existing or anonymous variable or function: |
302 | ||
303 | func( \$some_scalar ); | |
304 | ||
65acb1b1 | 305 | func( \@some_array ); |
68dc0745 | 306 | func( [ 1 .. 10 ] ); |
307 | ||
308 | func( \%some_hash ); | |
309 | func( { this => 10, that => 20 } ); | |
310 | ||
311 | func( \&some_func ); | |
312 | func( sub { $_[0] ** $_[1] } ); | |
313 | ||
314 | =item Passing Filehandles | |
315 | ||
49d635f9 RGS |
316 | As of Perl 5.6, you can represent filehandles with scalar variables |
317 | which you treat as any other scalar. | |
318 | ||
319 | open my $fh, $filename or die "Cannot open $filename! $!"; | |
320 | func( $fh ); | |
197aec24 | 321 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
322 | sub func { |
323 | my $passed_fh = shift; | |
197aec24 | 324 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
325 | my $line = <$fh>; |
326 | } | |
197aec24 | 327 | |
49d635f9 | 328 | Before Perl 5.6, you had to use the C<*FH> or C<\*FH> notations. |
a6dd486b | 329 | These are "typeglobs"--see L<perldata/"Typeglobs and Filehandles"> |
c8db1d39 TC |
330 | and especially L<perlsub/"Pass by Reference"> for more information. |
331 | ||
d92eb7b0 GS |
332 | =item Passing Regexes |
333 | ||
334 | To pass regexes around, you'll need to be using a release of Perl | |
335 | sufficiently recent as to support the C<qr//> construct, pass around | |
336 | strings and use an exception-trapping eval, or else be very, very clever. | |
68dc0745 | 337 | |
d92eb7b0 GS |
338 | Here's an example of how to pass in a string to be regex compared |
339 | using C<qr//>: | |
68dc0745 | 340 | |
341 | sub compare($$) { | |
d92eb7b0 GS |
342 | my ($val1, $regex) = @_; |
343 | my $retval = $val1 =~ /$regex/; | |
344 | return $retval; | |
345 | } | |
346 | $match = compare("old McDonald", qr/d.*D/i); | |
347 | ||
348 | Notice how C<qr//> allows flags at the end. That pattern was compiled | |
349 | at compile time, although it was executed later. The nifty C<qr//> | |
350 | notation wasn't introduced until the 5.005 release. Before that, you | |
351 | had to approach this problem much less intuitively. For example, here | |
352 | it is again if you don't have C<qr//>: | |
353 | ||
354 | sub compare($$) { | |
355 | my ($val1, $regex) = @_; | |
356 | my $retval = eval { $val1 =~ /$regex/ }; | |
68dc0745 | 357 | die if $@; |
358 | return $retval; | |
359 | } | |
360 | ||
d92eb7b0 | 361 | $match = compare("old McDonald", q/($?i)d.*D/); |
68dc0745 | 362 | |
363 | Make sure you never say something like this: | |
364 | ||
d92eb7b0 | 365 | return eval "\$val =~ /$regex/"; # WRONG |
68dc0745 | 366 | |
d92eb7b0 | 367 | or someone can sneak shell escapes into the regex due to the double |
68dc0745 | 368 | interpolation of the eval and the double-quoted string. For example: |
369 | ||
370 | $pattern_of_evil = 'danger ${ system("rm -rf * &") } danger'; | |
371 | ||
372 | eval "\$string =~ /$pattern_of_evil/"; | |
373 | ||
374 | Those preferring to be very, very clever might see the O'Reilly book, | |
375 | I<Mastering Regular Expressions>, by Jeffrey Friedl. Page 273's | |
376 | Build_MatchMany_Function() is particularly interesting. A complete | |
377 | citation of this book is given in L<perlfaq2>. | |
378 | ||
379 | =item Passing Methods | |
380 | ||
381 | To pass an object method into a subroutine, you can do this: | |
382 | ||
383 | call_a_lot(10, $some_obj, "methname") | |
384 | sub call_a_lot { | |
385 | my ($count, $widget, $trick) = @_; | |
386 | for (my $i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) { | |
387 | $widget->$trick(); | |
388 | } | |
389 | } | |
390 | ||
a6dd486b JB |
391 | Or, you can use a closure to bundle up the object, its |
392 | method call, and arguments: | |
68dc0745 | 393 | |
394 | my $whatnot = sub { $some_obj->obfuscate(@args) }; | |
395 | func($whatnot); | |
396 | sub func { | |
397 | my $code = shift; | |
398 | &$code(); | |
399 | } | |
400 | ||
401 | You could also investigate the can() method in the UNIVERSAL class | |
402 | (part of the standard perl distribution). | |
403 | ||
404 | =back | |
405 | ||
406 | =head2 How do I create a static variable? | |
407 | ||
408 | As with most things in Perl, TMTOWTDI. What is a "static variable" in | |
409 | other languages could be either a function-private variable (visible | |
410 | only within a single function, retaining its value between calls to | |
411 | that function), or a file-private variable (visible only to functions | |
412 | within the file it was declared in) in Perl. | |
413 | ||
414 | Here's code to implement a function-private variable: | |
415 | ||
416 | BEGIN { | |
417 | my $counter = 42; | |
418 | sub prev_counter { return --$counter } | |
419 | sub next_counter { return $counter++ } | |
420 | } | |
421 | ||
422 | Now prev_counter() and next_counter() share a private variable $counter | |
423 | that was initialized at compile time. | |
424 | ||
425 | To declare a file-private variable, you'll still use a my(), putting | |
a6dd486b JB |
426 | the declaration at the outer scope level at the top of the file. |
427 | Assume this is in file Pax.pm: | |
68dc0745 | 428 | |
429 | package Pax; | |
430 | my $started = scalar(localtime(time())); | |
431 | ||
432 | sub begun { return $started } | |
433 | ||
434 | When C<use Pax> or C<require Pax> loads this module, the variable will | |
435 | be initialized. It won't get garbage-collected the way most variables | |
436 | going out of scope do, because the begun() function cares about it, | |
437 | but no one else can get it. It is not called $Pax::started because | |
438 | its scope is unrelated to the package. It's scoped to the file. You | |
439 | could conceivably have several packages in that same file all | |
440 | accessing the same private variable, but another file with the same | |
441 | package couldn't get to it. | |
442 | ||
c2611fb3 | 443 | See L<perlsub/"Persistent Private Variables"> for details. |
c8db1d39 | 444 | |
68dc0745 | 445 | =head2 What's the difference between dynamic and lexical (static) scoping? Between local() and my()? |
446 | ||
a6dd486b JB |
447 | C<local($x)> saves away the old value of the global variable C<$x> |
448 | and assigns a new value for the duration of the subroutine I<which is | |
68dc0745 | 449 | visible in other functions called from that subroutine>. This is done |
450 | at run-time, so is called dynamic scoping. local() always affects global | |
451 | variables, also called package variables or dynamic variables. | |
452 | ||
453 | C<my($x)> creates a new variable that is only visible in the current | |
a6dd486b | 454 | subroutine. This is done at compile-time, so it is called lexical or |
68dc0745 | 455 | static scoping. my() always affects private variables, also called |
456 | lexical variables or (improperly) static(ly scoped) variables. | |
457 | ||
458 | For instance: | |
459 | ||
460 | sub visible { | |
461 | print "var has value $var\n"; | |
462 | } | |
463 | ||
464 | sub dynamic { | |
465 | local $var = 'local'; # new temporary value for the still-global | |
466 | visible(); # variable called $var | |
467 | } | |
468 | ||
469 | sub lexical { | |
470 | my $var = 'private'; # new private variable, $var | |
471 | visible(); # (invisible outside of sub scope) | |
472 | } | |
473 | ||
474 | $var = 'global'; | |
475 | ||
476 | visible(); # prints global | |
477 | dynamic(); # prints local | |
478 | lexical(); # prints global | |
479 | ||
480 | Notice how at no point does the value "private" get printed. That's | |
481 | because $var only has that value within the block of the lexical() | |
482 | function, and it is hidden from called subroutine. | |
483 | ||
484 | In summary, local() doesn't make what you think of as private, local | |
485 | variables. It gives a global variable a temporary value. my() is | |
486 | what you're looking for if you want private variables. | |
487 | ||
197aec24 | 488 | See L<perlsub/"Private Variables via my()"> and |
13a2d996 | 489 | L<perlsub/"Temporary Values via local()"> for excruciating details. |
68dc0745 | 490 | |
491 | =head2 How can I access a dynamic variable while a similarly named lexical is in scope? | |
492 | ||
49d635f9 RGS |
493 | If you know your package, you can just mention it explicitly, as in |
494 | $Some_Pack::var. Note that the notation $::var is B<not> the dynamic $var | |
495 | in the current package, but rather the one in the "main" package, as | |
496 | though you had written $main::var. | |
497 | ||
498 | use vars '$var'; | |
499 | local $var = "global"; | |
500 | my $var = "lexical"; | |
68dc0745 | 501 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
502 | print "lexical is $var\n"; |
503 | print "global is $main::var\n"; | |
68dc0745 | 504 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
505 | Alternatively you can use the compiler directive our() to bring a |
506 | dynamic variable into the current lexical scope. | |
68dc0745 | 507 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
508 | require 5.006; # our() did not exist before 5.6 |
509 | use vars '$var'; | |
68dc0745 | 510 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
511 | local $var = "global"; |
512 | my $var = "lexical"; | |
513 | ||
514 | print "lexical is $var\n"; | |
515 | ||
516 | { | |
517 | our $var; | |
518 | print "global is $var\n"; | |
519 | } | |
68dc0745 | 520 | |
521 | =head2 What's the difference between deep and shallow binding? | |
522 | ||
523 | In deep binding, lexical variables mentioned in anonymous subroutines | |
524 | are the same ones that were in scope when the subroutine was created. | |
525 | In shallow binding, they are whichever variables with the same names | |
526 | happen to be in scope when the subroutine is called. Perl always uses | |
527 | deep binding of lexical variables (i.e., those created with my()). | |
528 | However, dynamic variables (aka global, local, or package variables) | |
529 | are effectively shallowly bound. Consider this just one more reason | |
530 | not to use them. See the answer to L<"What's a closure?">. | |
531 | ||
04d666b1 | 532 | =head2 Why doesn't "my($foo) = E<lt>FILEE<gt>;" work right? |
68dc0745 | 533 | |
c8db1d39 | 534 | C<my()> and C<local()> give list context to the right hand side |
c47ff5f1 | 535 | of C<=>. The <FH> read operation, like so many of Perl's |
c8db1d39 TC |
536 | functions and operators, can tell which context it was called in and |
537 | behaves appropriately. In general, the scalar() function can help. | |
538 | This function does nothing to the data itself (contrary to popular myth) | |
539 | but rather tells its argument to behave in whatever its scalar fashion is. | |
540 | If that function doesn't have a defined scalar behavior, this of course | |
541 | doesn't help you (such as with sort()). | |
68dc0745 | 542 | |
543 | To enforce scalar context in this particular case, however, you need | |
544 | merely omit the parentheses: | |
545 | ||
546 | local($foo) = <FILE>; # WRONG | |
547 | local($foo) = scalar(<FILE>); # ok | |
548 | local $foo = <FILE>; # right | |
549 | ||
550 | You should probably be using lexical variables anyway, although the | |
551 | issue is the same here: | |
552 | ||
553 | my($foo) = <FILE>; # WRONG | |
554 | my $foo = <FILE>; # right | |
555 | ||
54310121 | 556 | =head2 How do I redefine a builtin function, operator, or method? |
68dc0745 | 557 | |
558 | Why do you want to do that? :-) | |
559 | ||
560 | If you want to override a predefined function, such as open(), | |
561 | then you'll have to import the new definition from a different | |
4a4eefd0 | 562 | module. See L<perlsub/"Overriding Built-in Functions">. There's |
65acb1b1 | 563 | also an example in L<perltoot/"Class::Template">. |
68dc0745 | 564 | |
565 | If you want to overload a Perl operator, such as C<+> or C<**>, | |
566 | then you'll want to use the C<use overload> pragma, documented | |
567 | in L<overload>. | |
568 | ||
569 | If you're talking about obscuring method calls in parent classes, | |
570 | see L<perltoot/"Overridden Methods">. | |
571 | ||
572 | =head2 What's the difference between calling a function as &foo and foo()? | |
573 | ||
574 | When you call a function as C<&foo>, you allow that function access to | |
a6dd486b JB |
575 | your current @_ values, and you bypass prototypes. |
576 | The function doesn't get an empty @_--it gets yours! While not | |
68dc0745 | 577 | strictly speaking a bug (it's documented that way in L<perlsub>), it |
578 | would be hard to consider this a feature in most cases. | |
579 | ||
c8db1d39 | 580 | When you call your function as C<&foo()>, then you I<do> get a new @_, |
68dc0745 | 581 | but prototyping is still circumvented. |
582 | ||
583 | Normally, you want to call a function using C<foo()>. You may only | |
584 | omit the parentheses if the function is already known to the compiler | |
585 | because it already saw the definition (C<use> but not C<require>), | |
586 | or via a forward reference or C<use subs> declaration. Even in this | |
587 | case, you get a clean @_ without any of the old values leaking through | |
588 | where they don't belong. | |
589 | ||
590 | =head2 How do I create a switch or case statement? | |
591 | ||
592 | This is explained in more depth in the L<perlsyn>. Briefly, there's | |
593 | no official case statement, because of the variety of tests possible | |
594 | in Perl (numeric comparison, string comparison, glob comparison, | |
83df6a1d JH |
595 | regex matching, overloaded comparisons, ...). |
596 | Larry couldn't decide how best to do this, so he left it out, even | |
597 | though it's been on the wish list since perl1. | |
68dc0745 | 598 | |
83df6a1d JH |
599 | Starting from Perl 5.8 to get switch and case one can use the |
600 | Switch extension and say: | |
601 | ||
602 | use Switch; | |
603 | ||
604 | after which one has switch and case. It is not as fast as it could be | |
605 | because it's not really part of the language (it's done using source | |
606 | filters) but it is available, and it's very flexible. | |
607 | ||
608 | But if one wants to use pure Perl, the general answer is to write a | |
609 | construct like this: | |
c8db1d39 TC |
610 | |
611 | for ($variable_to_test) { | |
612 | if (/pat1/) { } # do something | |
613 | elsif (/pat2/) { } # do something else | |
614 | elsif (/pat3/) { } # do something else | |
615 | else { } # default | |
197aec24 | 616 | } |
68dc0745 | 617 | |
c8db1d39 TC |
618 | Here's a simple example of a switch based on pattern matching, this |
619 | time lined up in a way to make it look more like a switch statement. | |
8305e449 | 620 | We'll do a multiway conditional based on the type of reference stored |
c8db1d39 TC |
621 | in $whatchamacallit: |
622 | ||
623 | SWITCH: for (ref $whatchamacallit) { | |
68dc0745 | 624 | |
625 | /^$/ && die "not a reference"; | |
626 | ||
627 | /SCALAR/ && do { | |
628 | print_scalar($$ref); | |
629 | last SWITCH; | |
630 | }; | |
631 | ||
632 | /ARRAY/ && do { | |
633 | print_array(@$ref); | |
634 | last SWITCH; | |
635 | }; | |
636 | ||
637 | /HASH/ && do { | |
638 | print_hash(%$ref); | |
639 | last SWITCH; | |
640 | }; | |
641 | ||
642 | /CODE/ && do { | |
643 | warn "can't print function ref"; | |
644 | last SWITCH; | |
645 | }; | |
646 | ||
647 | # DEFAULT | |
648 | ||
649 | warn "User defined type skipped"; | |
650 | ||
651 | } | |
652 | ||
197aec24 | 653 | See C<perlsyn/"Basic BLOCKs and Switch Statements"> for many other |
c8db1d39 TC |
654 | examples in this style. |
655 | ||
656 | Sometimes you should change the positions of the constant and the variable. | |
657 | For example, let's say you wanted to test which of many answers you were | |
658 | given, but in a case-insensitive way that also allows abbreviations. | |
659 | You can use the following technique if the strings all start with | |
a6dd486b | 660 | different characters or if you want to arrange the matches so that |
c8db1d39 TC |
661 | one takes precedence over another, as C<"SEND"> has precedence over |
662 | C<"STOP"> here: | |
663 | ||
664 | chomp($answer = <>); | |
665 | if ("SEND" =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is send\n" } | |
666 | elsif ("STOP" =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is stop\n" } | |
667 | elsif ("ABORT" =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is abort\n" } | |
668 | elsif ("LIST" =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is list\n" } | |
669 | elsif ("EDIT" =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is edit\n" } | |
670 | ||
197aec24 | 671 | A totally different approach is to create a hash of function references. |
c8db1d39 TC |
672 | |
673 | my %commands = ( | |
674 | "happy" => \&joy, | |
675 | "sad", => \&sullen, | |
676 | "done" => sub { die "See ya!" }, | |
677 | "mad" => \&angry, | |
678 | ); | |
679 | ||
680 | print "How are you? "; | |
681 | chomp($string = <STDIN>); | |
682 | if ($commands{$string}) { | |
683 | $commands{$string}->(); | |
684 | } else { | |
685 | print "No such command: $string\n"; | |
197aec24 | 686 | } |
c8db1d39 | 687 | |
49d635f9 | 688 | =head2 How can I catch accesses to undefined variables, functions, or methods? |
68dc0745 | 689 | |
690 | The AUTOLOAD method, discussed in L<perlsub/"Autoloading"> and | |
691 | L<perltoot/"AUTOLOAD: Proxy Methods">, lets you capture calls to | |
692 | undefined functions and methods. | |
693 | ||
694 | When it comes to undefined variables that would trigger a warning | |
49d635f9 | 695 | under C<use warnings>, you can promote the warning to an error. |
68dc0745 | 696 | |
49d635f9 | 697 | use warnings FATAL => qw(uninitialized); |
68dc0745 | 698 | |
699 | =head2 Why can't a method included in this same file be found? | |
700 | ||
701 | Some possible reasons: your inheritance is getting confused, you've | |
702 | misspelled the method name, or the object is of the wrong type. Check | |
a6dd486b JB |
703 | out L<perltoot> for details about any of the above cases. You may |
704 | also use C<print ref($object)> to find out the class C<$object> was | |
705 | blessed into. | |
68dc0745 | 706 | |
707 | Another possible reason for problems is because you've used the | |
708 | indirect object syntax (eg, C<find Guru "Samy">) on a class name | |
709 | before Perl has seen that such a package exists. It's wisest to make | |
710 | sure your packages are all defined before you start using them, which | |
711 | will be taken care of if you use the C<use> statement instead of | |
a6dd486b | 712 | C<require>. If not, make sure to use arrow notation (eg., |
c47ff5f1 | 713 | C<< Guru->find("Samy") >>) instead. Object notation is explained in |
68dc0745 | 714 | L<perlobj>. |
715 | ||
c8db1d39 | 716 | Make sure to read about creating modules in L<perlmod> and |
ae93639c | 717 | the perils of indirect objects in L<perlobj/"Method Invocation">. |
c8db1d39 | 718 | |
68dc0745 | 719 | =head2 How can I find out my current package? |
720 | ||
721 | If you're just a random program, you can do this to find | |
722 | out what the currently compiled package is: | |
723 | ||
c8db1d39 | 724 | my $packname = __PACKAGE__; |
68dc0745 | 725 | |
a6dd486b | 726 | But, if you're a method and you want to print an error message |
68dc0745 | 727 | that includes the kind of object you were called on (which is |
728 | not necessarily the same as the one in which you were compiled): | |
729 | ||
730 | sub amethod { | |
92c2ed05 | 731 | my $self = shift; |
68dc0745 | 732 | my $class = ref($self) || $self; |
733 | warn "called me from a $class object"; | |
734 | } | |
735 | ||
46fc3d4c | 736 | =head2 How can I comment out a large block of perl code? |
737 | ||
659cfd94 RGS |
738 | You can use embedded POD to discard it. Enclose the blocks you want |
739 | to comment out in POD markers, for example C<=for nobody> and C<=cut> | |
740 | (which marks ends of POD blocks). | |
46fc3d4c | 741 | |
742 | # program is here | |
743 | ||
744 | =for nobody | |
46fc3d4c | 745 | |
746 | all of this stuff | |
747 | ||
748 | here will be ignored | |
749 | by everyone | |
750 | ||
659cfd94 RGS |
751 | =cut |
752 | ||
753 | # program continues | |
46fc3d4c | 754 | |
f05bbc40 JH |
755 | The pod directives cannot go just anywhere. You must put a |
756 | pod directive where the parser is expecting a new statement, | |
757 | not just in the middle of an expression or some other | |
659cfd94 | 758 | arbitrary grammar production. |
fc36a67e | 759 | |
f05bbc40 | 760 | See L<perlpod> for more details. |
c8db1d39 | 761 | |
65acb1b1 TC |
762 | =head2 How do I clear a package? |
763 | ||
764 | Use this code, provided by Mark-Jason Dominus: | |
765 | ||
766 | sub scrub_package { | |
767 | no strict 'refs'; | |
768 | my $pack = shift; | |
197aec24 | 769 | die "Shouldn't delete main package" |
65acb1b1 TC |
770 | if $pack eq "" || $pack eq "main"; |
771 | my $stash = *{$pack . '::'}{HASH}; | |
772 | my $name; | |
773 | foreach $name (keys %$stash) { | |
774 | my $fullname = $pack . '::' . $name; | |
775 | # Get rid of everything with that name. | |
776 | undef $$fullname; | |
777 | undef @$fullname; | |
778 | undef %$fullname; | |
779 | undef &$fullname; | |
780 | undef *$fullname; | |
781 | } | |
782 | } | |
783 | ||
197aec24 | 784 | Or, if you're using a recent release of Perl, you can |
65acb1b1 TC |
785 | just use the Symbol::delete_package() function instead. |
786 | ||
d92eb7b0 GS |
787 | =head2 How can I use a variable as a variable name? |
788 | ||
789 | Beginners often think they want to have a variable contain the name | |
790 | of a variable. | |
791 | ||
792 | $fred = 23; | |
793 | $varname = "fred"; | |
794 | ++$$varname; # $fred now 24 | |
795 | ||
796 | This works I<sometimes>, but it is a very bad idea for two reasons. | |
797 | ||
a6dd486b JB |
798 | The first reason is that this technique I<only works on global |
799 | variables>. That means that if $fred is a lexical variable created | |
800 | with my() in the above example, the code wouldn't work at all: you'd | |
801 | accidentally access the global and skip right over the private lexical | |
802 | altogether. Global variables are bad because they can easily collide | |
803 | accidentally and in general make for non-scalable and confusing code. | |
d92eb7b0 GS |
804 | |
805 | Symbolic references are forbidden under the C<use strict> pragma. | |
806 | They are not true references and consequently are not reference counted | |
807 | or garbage collected. | |
808 | ||
809 | The other reason why using a variable to hold the name of another | |
a6dd486b | 810 | variable is a bad idea is that the question often stems from a lack of |
d92eb7b0 GS |
811 | understanding of Perl data structures, particularly hashes. By using |
812 | symbolic references, you are just using the package's symbol-table hash | |
813 | (like C<%main::>) instead of a user-defined hash. The solution is to | |
814 | use your own hash or a real reference instead. | |
815 | ||
369b44b4 | 816 | $USER_VARS{"fred"} = 23; |
d92eb7b0 GS |
817 | $varname = "fred"; |
818 | $USER_VARS{$varname}++; # not $$varname++ | |
819 | ||
820 | There we're using the %USER_VARS hash instead of symbolic references. | |
821 | Sometimes this comes up in reading strings from the user with variable | |
822 | references and wanting to expand them to the values of your perl | |
823 | program's variables. This is also a bad idea because it conflates the | |
824 | program-addressable namespace and the user-addressable one. Instead of | |
825 | reading a string and expanding it to the actual contents of your program's | |
826 | own variables: | |
827 | ||
828 | $str = 'this has a $fred and $barney in it'; | |
829 | $str =~ s/(\$\w+)/$1/eeg; # need double eval | |
830 | ||
a6dd486b | 831 | it would be better to keep a hash around like %USER_VARS and have |
d92eb7b0 GS |
832 | variable references actually refer to entries in that hash: |
833 | ||
834 | $str =~ s/\$(\w+)/$USER_VARS{$1}/g; # no /e here at all | |
835 | ||
836 | That's faster, cleaner, and safer than the previous approach. Of course, | |
837 | you don't need to use a dollar sign. You could use your own scheme to | |
838 | make it less confusing, like bracketed percent symbols, etc. | |
839 | ||
840 | $str = 'this has a %fred% and %barney% in it'; | |
841 | $str =~ s/%(\w+)%/$USER_VARS{$1}/g; # no /e here at all | |
842 | ||
a6dd486b JB |
843 | Another reason that folks sometimes think they want a variable to |
844 | contain the name of a variable is because they don't know how to build | |
845 | proper data structures using hashes. For example, let's say they | |
846 | wanted two hashes in their program: %fred and %barney, and that they | |
847 | wanted to use another scalar variable to refer to those by name. | |
d92eb7b0 GS |
848 | |
849 | $name = "fred"; | |
850 | $$name{WIFE} = "wilma"; # set %fred | |
851 | ||
197aec24 | 852 | $name = "barney"; |
d92eb7b0 GS |
853 | $$name{WIFE} = "betty"; # set %barney |
854 | ||
855 | This is still a symbolic reference, and is still saddled with the | |
856 | problems enumerated above. It would be far better to write: | |
857 | ||
858 | $folks{"fred"}{WIFE} = "wilma"; | |
859 | $folks{"barney"}{WIFE} = "betty"; | |
860 | ||
861 | And just use a multilevel hash to start with. | |
862 | ||
863 | The only times that you absolutely I<must> use symbolic references are | |
864 | when you really must refer to the symbol table. This may be because it's | |
865 | something that can't take a real reference to, such as a format name. | |
866 | Doing so may also be important for method calls, since these always go | |
867 | through the symbol table for resolution. | |
868 | ||
869 | In those cases, you would turn off C<strict 'refs'> temporarily so you | |
870 | can play around with the symbol table. For example: | |
871 | ||
872 | @colors = qw(red blue green yellow orange purple violet); | |
873 | for my $name (@colors) { | |
874 | no strict 'refs'; # renege for the block | |
875 | *$name = sub { "<FONT COLOR='$name'>@_</FONT>" }; | |
197aec24 | 876 | } |
d92eb7b0 GS |
877 | |
878 | All those functions (red(), blue(), green(), etc.) appear to be separate, | |
879 | but the real code in the closure actually was compiled only once. | |
880 | ||
881 | So, sometimes you might want to use symbolic references to directly | |
882 | manipulate the symbol table. This doesn't matter for formats, handles, and | |
a6dd486b JB |
883 | subroutines, because they are always global--you can't use my() on them. |
884 | For scalars, arrays, and hashes, though--and usually for subroutines-- | |
885 | you probably only want to use hard references. | |
d92eb7b0 | 886 | |
5cd0b561 RGS |
887 | =head2 What does "bad interpreter" mean? |
888 | ||
889 | The "bad interpreter" message comes from the shell, not perl. The | |
890 | actual message may vary depending on your platform, shell, and locale | |
891 | settings. | |
892 | ||
893 | If you see "bad interpreter - no such file or directory", the first | |
894 | line in your perl script (the "shebang" line) does not contain the | |
895 | right path to perl (or any other program capable of running scripts). | |
896 | Sometimes this happens when you move the script from one machine to | |
897 | another and each machine has a different path to perl---/usr/bin/perl | |
898 | versus /usr/local/bin/perl for instance. | |
899 | ||
900 | If you see "bad interpreter: Permission denied", you need to make your | |
901 | script executable. | |
902 | ||
903 | In either case, you should still be able to run the scripts with perl | |
904 | explicitly: | |
905 | ||
906 | % perl script.pl | |
907 | ||
908 | If you get a message like "perl: command not found", perl is not in | |
909 | your PATH, which might also mean that the location of perl is not | |
910 | where you expect it so you need to adjust your shebang line. | |
911 | ||
68dc0745 | 912 | =head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT |
913 | ||
0bc0ad85 | 914 | Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. |
5a964f20 TC |
915 | All rights reserved. |
916 | ||
5a7beb56 JH |
917 | This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it |
918 | under the same terms as Perl itself. | |
5a964f20 TC |
919 | |
920 | Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples in this file | |
921 | are hereby placed into the public domain. You are permitted and | |
922 | encouraged to use this code in your own programs for fun | |
923 | or for profit as you see fit. A simple comment in the code giving | |
924 | credit would be courteous but is not required. | |
a6dd486b | 925 |