NAME

Moose::Meta::TypeConstraint - The Moose Type Constraint metaclass

DESCRIPTION

This class represents a single type constraint. Moose's built-in type constraints, as well as constraints you define, are all stored in a Moose::Meta::TypeConstraint::Registry object as objects of this class.

INHERITANCE

Moose::Meta::TypeConstraint is a subclass of Class::MOP::Object.

METHODS

Moose::Meta::TypeConstraint->new(%options)

This creates a new type constraint based on the provided %options:

• name

  The constraint name. If a name is not provided, it will be set to "__ANON__".

• parent

  A Moose::Meta::TypeConstraint object which is the parent type for the type being created. This is optional.

• constraint

  This is the subroutine reference that implements the actual constraint check. This defaults to a subroutine which always returns true.

• message

  A subroutine reference which is used to generate an error message when the constraint fails. This is optional.

• coercion

  A Moose::Meta::TypeCoercion object representing the coercions to the type. This is optional.

• optimized

  This is a variant of the constraint parameter that is somehow optimized. Typically, this means incorporating both the type's constraint and all of its parents' constraints into a single subroutine reference.

$constraint->equals($type_name_or_object)

Returns true if the supplied name or type object is the same as the current type.

$constraint->is_subtype_of($type_name_or_object)

Returns true if the supplied name or type object is a parent of the current type.

$constraint->is_a_type_of($type_name_or_object)

Returns true if the given type is the same as the current type, or is a parent of the current type. This is a shortcut for checking equals and is_subtype_of.

$constraint->coerce($value)

This will attempt to coerce the value to the type. If the type does have any defined coercions this will throw an error.

$constraint->check($value)

Returns true if the given value passes the constraint for the type.

$constraint->validate($value)

This is similar to check. However, if the type is valid then the method returns an explicit undef. If the type is not valid, we call $self->get_message($value) internally to generate an error message.

$constraint->assert_valid($value)

Like check and validate, this method checks whether $value is valid under the constraint. If it is, it will return true. If it is not, an exception will be thrown with the results of $self->get_message($value).

$constraint->name

Returns the type's name, as provided to the constructor.

$constraint->parent

Returns the type's parent, as provided to the constructor, if any.

$constraint->has_parent

Returns true if the type has a parent type.

$constraint->parents

A synonym for parent. This is useful for polymorphism with types that can have more than one parent.

$constraint->constraint

Returns the type's constraint, as provided to the constructor.

$constraint->get_message($value)

This generates a method for the given value. If the type does not have an explicit message, we generate a default message.

$constraint->has_message

Returns true if the type has a message.

$constraint->message

Returns the type's message as a subroutine reference.

$constraint->coercion

Returns the type's Moose::Meta::TypeCoercion object, if one exists.

$constraint->has_coercion

Returns true if the type has a coercion.

$constraint->hand_optimized_type_constraint

Returns the type's hand optimized constraint, as provided to the constructor via the optimized option.

$constraint->has_hand_optimized_type_constraint

Returns true if the type has an optimized constraint.

$constraint->create_child_type(%options)

This returns a new type constraint of the same class using the provided %options. The parent option will be the current type.

This method exists so that subclasses of this class can override this behavior and change how child types are created.

BUGS

See "BUGS" in Moose for details on reporting bugs.

AUTHOR

Stevan Little <stevan@iinteractive.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2006-2010 by Infinity Interactive, Inc.

http://www.iinteractive.com

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