autobox::Core(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation autobox::Core(3)
NAME
autobox::Core - Core functions exposed as methods in primitive types
SYNOPSIS
use autobox::Core;
"Hello, World\n"->uc->print;
DESCRIPTION
The autobox module lets you call methods on primitive datatypes such as
scalars and arrays.
autobox::CORE defines methods for core operations such as "join",
"print", most everything in perlfunc, some things from Scalar::Util and
List::Util, and some Perl 5 versions of methods taken from Perl 6.
These methods expose as methods the built-in functions for minipulating
numbers, strings, arrays, hashes, and code references.
It can be handy to use built-in functions as methods to avoid messy
dereferencing syntaxes and parentheses pile ups.
autobox::Core is what you'd call a stub module. It is merely glue, pre-
senting existing functions with a new interface. Most of the methods
read like "sub hex ($) { hex($_[0]) }". Besides built-ins that operate
on hashes, arrays, scalars, and code references, some Perl 6-ish things
were thrown in, and some keyword like "foreach" have been turned into
methods.
What's Implemented?
All of the functions listed in perldoc under the headings: "Functions
for real @ARRAYs", "Functions for real %HASHes", "Functions for list
data", and "Functions for SCALARs or strings", plus a few taken from
other sections and documented below. Methods from Scalar::Util and
List::Util were thrown in. Some things expected in Perl 6, such as
"last" ("last_idx"), "elems", and "curry", have been thrown in. "flat-
ten" explicitly flattens an array. Functions such as "add" have been
defined for numeric operations.
Here's a small sample:
print [10, 20, 30, 40, 50]->pop, "\n";
print [10, 20, 30, 40, 50]->shift, "\n";
my $arrref = [10, 20, 30];
my $lala;
$lala = "Lalalalala\n"; print "chomp: ", $lala->chomp, ' ', $lala, "\n";
$lala = "Lalalalala\n"; print "lcfirst: ", $lala->lcfirst, ' ', $lala, "\n";
my $hashref = { foo => 10, bar => 20, baz => 30, qux => 40 };
print "hash keys: ", join ' ', $hashref->keys(), "\n";
Of the built-in stuff, only a few stragglers such as "srand" were
excluded.
Scalar String Related Methods
"concat" is the "." operator.
"strip" is not a built-in operator or function but is instead one of a
number of user-defined convinience methods. "strip" strips out white-
space from the beginning and end of a string. This is redundant and
subtely different from "trim" XXX.
"trim" strips out whitespace from the beginning and end of a string.
"title_case", "center", "ltrim", "rtrim", and "trim" were taken from
perl5i.
"split" is called on a non-reference scalar with the regular expression
passed in. This is done for consistency with "m" and "s".
print "10, 20, 30, 40"->split(qr{, ?})->elements, "\n";
"chomp", "chop", "chr", "crypt", "index", "lc", "lcfirst", "length",
"ord", "pack", "reverse", "rindex", "sprintf", "substr", "uc",
"ucfirst", "unpack", "quotemeta", "vec", "undef", "m", "nm", "s",
"split". "eval", "system", and "backtick".
"m" matches: "$foo->m(/bar/)" corresponds to "$foo =~ m/bar/". "nm"
corresponds to "!~". "s" corresponds to "=~ s///".
"undef" assigns "undef" to the value. It is not a test. XXX for some
reason, there's no "defined".
I/O
"print" and "say".
Number Related Methods
"abs", "atan2", "cos", "exp", "int", "log", "oct", "hex", "rand",
"sin", and "sqrt" are named after the built-in functions of the same
name.
Operators were given names as follows: "add", "and", "band", "bor",
"bxor", "cmp", "dec", "div", "eq", "flip", "ge", "gt", "inc", "le",
"lshift", "lt", "mod", "mult", "mcmp", "ne", "neg", "meq", "mge",
"mgt", "mle", "mlt", "mne", "not", "or", "pow", "rpt", "rshift", "sub",
"xor".
"flip" is "~" which is the binary (rather than boolean) "not".
"lshift" is "<<" and "rshift" is ">>".
"mge" is ">=". "<mle"> is "<=". I'm not sure where the "m" came from.
"sub" is subtract, I think, but it should not be named the same as the
anonymous subroutine constructor XXX.
*is_number = \&Scalar::Util::looks_like_number; sub is_positive
{ $[0]->isnumber && $[0] > 0 } sub isnegative {
$[0]->isnumber && $[0] < 0 } sub isinteger {
$[0]->isnumber && ((int($_[0]) - $[0]) == 0) } *isint = \&is_inte-
ger; sub is_decimal { $[0]->isnumber && ((int($_[0]) -
$_[0]) != 0) }
That's it.
Reference Related Methods
Besides the "Functions for SCALARs" section of perlfunc, the following
were implemented, where they make sense: "tie", "tied", "ref", "undef",
"bless", and "vec". "tie", "tied", and "undef" don't work on code ref-
erences, and "bless" doesn't work on non-reference scalars (okay,
that's no longer true). "quotemeta" works on non-reference scalars,
along with "split", "m", and "s" for regular expression operations.
"ref" is the same as the "ref" keyword in that it tells you what kind
of a reference something is if it's a reference; XXX there's currently
no counterpart to the "\" operator, which takes something and gives you
a reference to it.
Array Methods
my $arr = [ 1 .. 10 ];
$arr->undef;
Array references can tell you how many elements they contain and the
index of their last element:
my $arr = [ 1 .. 10 ];
print '$arr contains ', $arr->size,
' elements, the last having an index of ', $arr->last_index, "\n";
Array references have a "flatten" method to dump their elements. This
is the same as "@{$array_ref}".
my $arr = [ 1 .. 10 ];
print join " -- ", $arr->flatten, "\n";
Array references can be iterated on using "for" and "foreach". Both
take a code reference as the body of the for statement. "foreach"
passes the current element itself in each pass. "for" passes the index
of the current element in to that code block, and then the current ele-
ment, and then a reference to the array itself.
my $arr = [ 1 .. 10 ];
$arr->foreach(sub { print $_[0], "\n" });
$arr->for(sub { die unless $_[1] == $_[2]->[$_[0]] });
"sum" is a toy poke at doing Language::Functional-like stuff:
print $arrref->sum, "\n";
XXX round this out
Methods for array creation: "to", "upto", and "downto".
1->to(5); # creates [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
1->upto(5); # creates [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
5->downto(5); # creates [5, 4, 3, 2, 1]
These wrap the ".." operator.
$arr->first(sub { /5/ });
Hash Methods
"each" is like "foreach" but for hash references. For each key in the
hash, the code reference is invoked with the key and the corresponding
value as arguments:
my $hashref = { foo => 10, bar => 20, baz => 30, quux => 40 };
$hashref->each(sub { print $_[0], ' is ', $_[1], "\n" });
There is currently no way to have the elements sorted before they are
handed to the code block. If someone requests a way of passing in a
sort criteria, I'll implement it.
"m" is "m//" and "s" is "s///". These work on scalars. Pass a regular
expression created with "qr//" and specify flags to the regular expres-
sion as part of the regular expression using the "(?imsx-imsx)" syntax
documented in perlre. "m" returns an array reference so that things
such as "map" and "grep" may be called on the result.
my ($street_number, $street_name, $apartment_number) =
"1234 Robin Drive #101"->m(qr{(\d+) (.*)(?: #(\d+))?})->elements;
print "$street_number $street_name $apartment_number\n";
Code Methods
You may "curry" code references:
$adding_up_numbers = sub {
my $first_number = shift;
my $second_number = shift;
return $first_number + $second_number;
};
my $adding_five_to_numbers = $adding_up_numbers->curry(5);
$adding_five_to_numbers->(20)->print; "\n"->print;
"times" executes a coderef a given number of times:
5->times(sub { print "hi\n"}); # XXX likely to change but it's in the code so bloody doc it so I have incentive to rethink it
XXX round this out
What's Missing?
Many operators. I'm tired. I'll do it in the morning. Maybe. Send
me a patch. Update: Someone sent me a patch for numeric operations.
File and socket operations are already implemented in an object-ori-
ented fashion care of IO::Handle, IO::Socket::INET, and IO::Any.
Functions listed in the perlfunc headings "System V interprocess commu-
nication functions", "Fetching user and group info", "Fetching network
info", "Keywords related to perl modules", "Functions for processes and
process groups", "Keywords related to scoping", "Time-related func-
tions", "Keywords related to the control flow of your perl program",
"Functions for filehandles, files, or directories", and "Input and out-
put functions". These things are likely implemented in an object ori-
ented fashion by other CPAN modules, are keywords and not functions,
take no arguments, or don't make sense as part of the string, number,
array, hash, or code API. "srand" because you probably shouldn't be
using it.
"each" on hashes. There is no good reason it is missing. XXX.
Autoboxing
This section quotes four pages from the manuscript of Perl 6 Now: The
Core Ideas Illustrated with Perl 5 by myself, Scott Walters. The text
appears in the book starting at page 248. This copy lacks the benefit
of copyedit - the finished product is of higher quality. See the shame-
less plug in the SEE ALSO section for information on ordering Perl 6
Now.
A box is an object that contains a primitive variable. Boxes are used
to endow primitive types with the capabilities of objects. This is
essential in strongly typed languages but never strictly required in
Perl. Programmers might write something like "my $number =
Int->new(5)". This is manual boxing. To autobox is to convert a sim-
ple type into an object type automatically, or only conceptually. This
is done by the language. It makes a language look to programmers as if
everything is an object while the interpreter is free to implement data
storage however it pleases. Autoboxing is really making simple types
such as numbers, strings, and arrays appear to be objects.
"int", "num", "bit", "str", and other types with lower case names, are
primitives. They're fast to operate on, and require no more memory to
store than the data held strictly requires. "Int", "Num", "Bit",
"Str", and other types with an initial capital letter, are objects.
These may be subclassed (inherited from) and accept traits, among other
things. These objects are provided by the system for the sole purpose
of representing primitive types as objects, though this has many ancil-
lary benefits such as making "is" and "has" work. Perl provides "Int"
to encapsulate an "int", "Num" to encapsulate a "num", "Bit" to encap-
sulate a "bit", and so on. As Perl's implementations of hashes and
dynamically expandable arrays store any type, not just objects, Perl
programmers almost never are required to box primitive types in
objects. Perl's power makes this feature less essential than it is in
other languages.
ing makes primitive objects and they're boxed versions equivalent. An
"int" may be used as an "Int" with no constructor call, no passing,
nothing. This applies to constants too, not just variables:
# Perl 6 - autoboxing associates classes with primitives types:
print 4.sqrt, "\n";
This is perfectly valid Perl 6.
All of this applies to hashes and arrays, as well:
# Perl 6 - autoboxing associates classes with primitive types:
print [ 1 .. 20 ].elems, "\n";
The language is free to implement data storage however it wishes but
the programmer sees the variables as objects.
Expressions using autoboxing read somewhat like Latin suffixes. In the
autoboxing mind-set, you might not say that something is "made more
mnemonic", but has been "mnemonicified".
Autoboxing may be mixed with normal function calls. In the case where
the methods are available as functions and the functions are available
as methods, it is only a matter of personal taste how the expression
should be written:
# Calling methods on numbers and strings, these three lines are equivalent
# Perl 6
print sqrt 4;
print 4.sqrt;
4.sqrt.print;
The first of these three equivalents assumes that a global "sqrt()"
function exists. This first example would fail to operate if this
global function were removed and only a method in the "Num" package was
left.
Perl 5 had the beginnings of autoboxing with filehandles:
use IO::Handle;
open my $file, '<', 'file.txt' or die $!;
$file->read(my $data, -s $file);
Here, "read" is a method on a filehandle we opened but never blessed.
This lets us say things like "$file->print(...)" rather than the often
ambagious
"print $file ...". To many people, much of the time, it makes more
conceptual sense as well.
Reasons to Box Primitive Types
What good is all of this?
Makes conceptual sense to programmers used to object interfaces as the
way to perform options.
Alternative idiom. Doesn't require the programmer to write or read
expressions with complex precedence rules or strange operators.
Many times that parenthesis would otherwise have to span a large
expression, the expression may be rewritten such that the parenthesis
span only a few primitive types.
Code may often be written with fewer temporary variables.
Autoboxing provides the benefits of boxed types without the memory
bloat of actually using objects to represent primitives. Autoboxing
"fakes it".
Strings, numbers, arrays, hashes, and so on, each have their own API.
Documentation for an "exists" method for arrays doesn't have to explain
how hashes are handled and vice versa.
Perl tries to accommodate the notion that the "subject" of a statement
should be the first thing on the line, and autoboxing furthers this
agenda.
Perl is an idiomatic language and this is an important idiom.
Subject First: An Aside
Perl's design philosophy promotes the idea that the language should be
flexible enough to allow programmers to place the of a statement
first. For example, "die $! unless read $file, 60" looks like the pri-
mary purpose of the statement is to "die". While that might be the
programmers primary goal, when it isn't, the programmer can communicate
his real primary intention to programmers by reversing the order of
clauses while keeping the exact same logic: "read $file, 60 or die $!".
Autoboxing is another way of putting the subject first. Nouns make
good subjects, and in programming, variables, constants, and object
names are the nouns. Function and method names are verbs.
"$noun->verb()" focuses the readers attention on the thing being acted
on rather than the action being performed. Compare to "$verb($noun)".
Autoboxing and Method Results
In Chapter 11 [Subroutines], we had examples of ways an expression
could be written. Here it is again:
# Various ways to do the same thing:
print(reverse(sort(keys(%hash)))); # Perl 5 - pathological parenthetic
print reverse sort keys %hash; # Perl 5 - no unneeded parenthesis
print(reverse(sort(%hash,keys)))); # Perl 6 - pathological
print reverse sort %hash.keys; # Perl 6 - no unneeded parenthesis
%hash.keys ==> sort ==> reverse ==> print; # Perl 6 - pipeline operator
%hash.keys.sort.reverse.print; # Perl 6 - autobox
%hash->keys->sort->reverse->print; # Perl 5 - autobox
This section deals with the last two of these equivalents. These are
method calls
use autobox::Core;
use Perl6::Contexts;
my %hash = (foo => 'bar', baz => 'quux');
%hash->keys->sort->reverse->print; # Perl 5 - autobox
# prints "foo baz"
Each method call returns an array reference, in this example. Another
method call is immediately performed on this value. This feeding of
the next method call with the result of the previous call is the common
mode of use of autoboxing. Providing no other arguments to the method
calls, however, is not common.
Perl6::Contexts recognizes object context as provided by "->" and
coerces %hash and @array into references, suitable for use with auto-
box. (Note that autobox also does this automatically as of version
2.40.) autobox associates primitive types, such as references of vari-
ous sorts, with classes. autobox::Core throws into those classes meth-
ods wrapping Perl's built-in functions. In the interest of full dis-
closure, Perl6::Contexts and autobox::Core are my creations.
Autobox to Simplify Expressions
One of my pet peeves in programming is parenthesis that span large
expression. It seems like about the time I'm getting ready to close
the parenthesis I opened on the other side of the line, I realize that
I've forgotten something, and I have to arrow back over or grab the
mouse. When the expression is too long to fit on a single line, it
gets broken up, then I must decide how to indent it if it grows to 3 or
more lines.
# Perl 5 - a somewhat complex expression
print join("\n", map { CGI::param($) } @cgivars), "\n";
# Perl 5 - again, using autobox:
@cgi_vars->map(sub { CGI::param($_[0]) })->join("\n")->concat("\n")->print;
The autoboxed version isn't shorter, but it reads from left to right,
and the parenthesis from the "join()" don't span nearly as many charac-
ters. The complex expression serving as the value being "join()"ed in
the non-autoboxed version becomes, in the autoboxed version, a value to
call the "join()" method on.
This "print" statement takes a list of CGI parameter names, reads the
values for each parameter, joins them together with newlines, and
prints them with a newline after the last one.
Pretending that this expression were much larger and it had to be bro-
ken to span several lines, or pretending that comments are to be placed
after each part of the expression, you might reformat it as such:
@cgi_vars->map(sub { CGI::param($_[0]) }) # turn CGI arg names into values
->join("\n") # join with newlines
->concat("\n") # give it a trailing newline
->print; # print them all out
This could also have been written:
sub { CGI::param($[0]) }->map(@cgivars) # turn CGI arg names into values
->join("\n") # join with newlines
->concat("\n") # give it a trailing newline
->print; # print them all out
"map()" is . The "map()" method defined in the "autobox::Core::CODE"
package takes for its arguments the things to map. The "map()" method
defined in the "autobox::Core::ARRAY" package takes for its argument a
code reference to apply to each element of the array.
Here ends the text quoted from the Perl 6 Now manuscript.
BUGS
Yes. Report them to the author, scott@slowass.net. The API is not yet
stable -- Perl 6-ish things and local extensions are still being
renamed.
HISTORY
Version 0.7 uses autobox itself so you don't have to, as requested, and
... oh hell. I started editing this to fix Schwern's reported v-string
warning, but I'm not seeing it. Use "~~" on "@array->grep" if we're
using 5.10 or newer. Add an explicit LICENSE section per request.
Took many tests and utility functions from perl5i.
Version 0.6 propogates arguments to "autobox" and doesn't require you
to use "autobox". I still can't test it and am applying patches
blindly. Maybe I'll drop the Hash::Util dep in the next version since
it and Scalar::Util are constantly wedging on my system. The documen-
tation needs to be updated and mention of Perl6::Contexts mostly
removed. Also, JJ contributed a "strip" method for scalars - thanks
JJ!
Version 0.5 has an $arrayref->unshift bug fix and and a new flatten
method for hashes. Also, this version is untested because my
Hash::Util stopped working, dammit.
Version 0.4 got numeric operations, if I remember.
Version 0.3 fixes a problem where "unpack" wasn't sure it had enough
arguments according to a test introduced in Perl 5.8.6 or perhaps
5.8.5. This problem was reported by Ron Reidy - thanks Ron! Version
0.3 also added the references to Perl 6 Now and the excerpt.
Version 0.2 rounded out the API and introduced the beginnings of func-
tional-ish methods.
Version 0.1 was woefully incomplete.
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2009, 2010 by Scott Walters
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.9 or, at
your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.
SEE ALSO
autobox
Moose::Autobox
Perl6::Contexts
<http://github.com/gitpan/autobox-Core>
IO::Any
Perl 6: <http://dev.perl.org/perl6/apocalypse/>.
(Shameless plug:) Perl 6 Now: The Core Ideas Illustrated with Perl 5
dedicates a sizable portion of Chapter 14, Objects, to autoboxing and
the idea is used heavily throughout the book. Chapter 8, Data Struc-
tures, also has numerous examples. See <http://perl6now.com> or look
for ISBN 1-59059-395-2 at your favorite bookstore for more information.
AUTHOR
Scott Walters, scott@slowass.net. Also, JJ contributed a "strip"
method for scalars - thanks JJ! (Is it wrong to cut and paste documen-
tation?) Ricardo SIGNES contributed patches. Thanks to Matt Spear,
who contributed tests and definitions for numeric operations. Mitchell
N Charity reported a bug and sent a fix. Thanks to chocolateboy for
autobox and for the encouragement.
perl v5.8.9 2010-03-04 autobox::Core(3)