NAME¶

Data::OptList - parse and validate simple name/value option pairs

VERSION¶

version 0.114

SYNOPSIS¶

  use Data::OptList;
  my $options = Data::OptList::mkopt([
    qw(key1 key2 key3 key4),
    key5 => { ... },
    key6 => [ ... ],
    key7 => sub { ... },
    key8 => { ... },
    key8 => [ ... ],
  ]);

...is the same thing, more or less, as:

  my $options = [
    [ key1 => undef,        ],
    [ key2 => undef,        ],
    [ key3 => undef,        ],
    [ key4 => undef,        ],
    [ key5 => { ... },      ],
    [ key6 => [ ... ],      ],
    [ key7 => sub { ... },  ],
    [ key8 => { ... },      ],
    [ key8 => [ ... ],      ],
  ]);

DESCRIPTION¶

Hashes are great for storing named data, but if you want more than one entry for a name, you have to use a list of pairs. Even then, this is really boring to write:

  $values = [
    foo => undef,
    bar => undef,
    baz => undef,
    xyz => { ... },
  ];

Just look at all those undefs! Don't worry, we can get rid of those:

  $values = [
    map { $_ => undef } qw(foo bar baz),
    xyz => { ... },
  ];

Aaaauuugh! We've saved a little typing, but now it requires thought to read, and thinking is even worse than typing... and it's got a bug! It looked right, didn't it? Well, the "xyz => { ... }" gets consumed by the map, and we don't get the data we wanted.

With Data::OptList, you can do this instead:

  $values = Data::OptList::mkopt([
    qw(foo bar baz),
    xyz => { ... },
  ]);

This works by assuming that any defined scalar is a name and any reference following a name is its value.

PERL VERSION¶

This library should run on perls released even a long time ago. It should work on any version of perl released in the last five years.

Although it may work on older versions of perl, no guarantee is made that the minimum required version will not be increased. The version may be increased for any reason, and there is no promise that patches will be accepted to lower the minimum required perl.

FUNCTIONS¶

  my $opt_list = Data::OptList::mkopt($input, \%arg);

  moniker        - a word used in errors to describe the opt list; encouraged
  require_unique - if true, no name may appear more than once
  must_be        - types to which opt list values are limited (described below)
  name_test      - a coderef used to test whether a value can be a name
                   (described below, but you probably don't want this)

  my $opt_list = Data::OptList::mkopt($input, $moniker, $req_uni, $must_be);

 undef    -> []
 hashref  -> [ [ key1 => value1 ] ... ] # non-ref values become undef
 arrayref -> every name followed by a non-name becomes a pair: [ name => ref ]
             every name followed by undef becomes a pair: [ name => undef ]
             otherwise, it becomes [ name => undef ] like so:
             [ "a", "b", [ 1, 2 ] ] -> [ [ a => undef ], [ b => [ 1, 2 ] ] ]

  [ qw(SCALAR HASH Object::Known) ]

  _SCALAR0($value) or _HASH($value) or _INSTANCE($value, 'Object::Known')

  my $opt_hash = Data::OptList::mkopt_hash($input, $moniker, $must_be);

EXPORTS¶

Both "mkopt" and "mkopt_hash" may be exported on request.

AUTHOR¶

Ricardo Signes <cpan@semiotic.systems>

CONTRIBUTORS¶

• Olivier Mengué <dolmen@cpan.org>
• Ricardo Signes <rjbs@semiotic.systems>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE¶

This software is copyright (c) 2006 by Ricardo Signes.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.