NAME

Method::Slice - A slice of method calls within an object

SYNOPSIS

  use Method::Slice;

  # rvalue example: gather several substrings
  my $url = sprintf "http://%s:%d/%s?%s", 
                    mslice($obj, qw/host port path query_string/);

  # lvalue example : transpose point
  my $point = Point->new(x => 11, y => 22);
  (mslice($point, qw/x y/)) = mslice($point, qw/y x/);

  # other lvalue example : move 10 units on x and y axes
  # must use  @{[]} because arg to 'map' is a non-assignment lvalue context
  (mslice($point, qw/x y/)) = map {$_ + 10} @{[mslice($point, qw/x y/)]};

  # unfortunately these won't work
  # $_ += 10 for mslice($point, qw/x y/);      # not in ASSIGN context
  # $_ += 10 for @{[mslice($point, qw/x y/)]}; # assigns to a throwaway copy

DESCRIPTION

Perl has a very convenient feature called slice, to extract several pieces of information at once from an array or from a hash (see ""Slices"). It is even possible to assign a list, to a slice, i.e. to simultaneously update several items within an array or hash." in perldata

Unfortunately, when it comes to objects with accessor methods, good practice forbids us to directly access the internal hash or array that stores the object state; so slices are no longer available, and every attribute of the object must be accessed in a separate call.

The present module comes the rescue : it exports a single subroutine mslice (for "method slice"), that takes an object and a collection of method names, and encapsulates a list of method calls, either to get a list of attributes, or to set them in a single list operation.

EXPORTS

mslice

  my @values = mslice($object, qw/meth1 meth2 .../);
  (mslice($object, qw/meth1 meth2 .../)) = @new_values;

Takes an object reference, and a collection of method names, which are supposed to be getter/setter methods in the usual sense (i.e. we should be able to write my $val = $object->meth1() for getting a value, and $object->meth1($new_val) for setting a value within that object).

If mslice is called in an rvalue context, it will return a list of values obtained by calling the methods as getter accessors (i.e. without any argument).

If mslice is called in an lvalue assign context, it will call each accessor in the method list, with a single argument corresponding to the item in the corresponding position within the list on the right-hand side. Notice that the mslice call should be enclosed in parenthesis so that it is in list context, not in scalar context.

Unfortunately mslice cannot be called in a lvalue, non-assign context. This is typically the case when using it as an argument to another subroutine (because that other subroutine receives aliases to its arguments in @_, and might alter those aliases). So for such situations we have to force an rvalue context by writing

  some_subroutine(@{[mslice($object, qw/meth1 meth2 .../)]})

See Want, perldata and "Lvalue subroutines" in perlsub for more explanations on lvalue/rvalue contexts.

AUTHOR

Laurent Dami, <dami at cpan.org>

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-method-slice at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Method-Slice. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.

SUPPORT

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

    perldoc Method::Slice

You can also look for information at:

• RT: CPAN's request tracker (report bugs here)

  http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Method-Slice

• AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation

  http://annocpan.org/dist/Method-Slice

• CPAN Ratings

  http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Method-Slice

• Search MetaCPAN

  https://metacpan.org/module/Method::Slice

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Belden Lyman for useful fixes.

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2013 Laurent Dami.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the the Artistic License (2.0). You may obtain a copy of the full license at:

http://www.perlfoundation.org/artistic_license_2_0

cpanm Method::Slice

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Method::Slice