Data::Visitor - Visitor style traversal of Perl data structures
# NOTE # You probably want to use Data::Visitor::Callback for trivial things package FooCounter; use Mouse; extends qw(Data::Visitor); has number_of_foos => ( isa => "Int", is => "rw", default => 0, ); sub visit_value { my ( $self, $data ) = @_; if ( defined $data and $data eq "foo" ) { $self->number_of_foos( $self->number_of_foos + 1 ); } return $data; } my $counter = FooCounter->new; $counter->visit( { this => "that", some_foos => [ qw/foo foo bar foo/ ], the_other => "foo", }); $counter->number_of_foos; # this is now 4
This module is a simple visitor implementation for Perl values.
It has a main dispatcher method, visit, which takes a single perl value and then calls the methods appropriate for that value.
visit
It can recursively map (cloning as necessary) or just traverse most structures, with support for per object behavior, circular structures, visiting tied structures, and all ref types (hashes, arrays, scalars, code, globs).
Data::Visitor is meant to be subclassed, but also ships with a callback driven subclass, Data::Visitor::Callback.
This method takes any Perl value as it's only argument, and dispatches to the various other visiting methods using visit_no_rec_check, based on the data's type.
visit_no_rec_check
If the value is a reference and has already been seen then visit_seen is called.
visit_seen
When an already seen value is encountered again it's typically replaced with the result of the first visitation of that value. The value and the result of the first visitation are passed as arguments.
Returns $first_result.
$first_result
Called for any value that has not yet been seen. Does the actual type based dispatch for visit.
Should not be called directly unless forcing a circular structure to be unfolded. Use with caution as this may cause infinite recursion.
If the value is a blessed object, visit calls this method. The base implementation will just forward to visit_value.
visit_value
Generic recursive visitor. All non blessed values are given to this.
visit_object can delegate to this method in order to visit the object anyway.
visit_object
This will check if the visitor can handle visit_$reftype (lowercase), and if not delegate to visit_value instead.
visit_$reftype
These methods are called for the corresponding container type.
If the value is anything else, this method is called. The base implementation will return $value.
Delegates to visit_hash_key and visit_hash_value. The value is passed as $_[2] so that it is aliased.
visit_hash_key
visit_hash_value
$_[2]
Calls visit on the key and returns it.
The value will be aliased (passed as $_[1]).
$_[1]
Delegates to visit on value. The value is passed as $_[1] to retain aliasing.
When tied_as_objects is enabled and a tied variable (hash, array, glob or scalar) is encountered this method will be called on the tied object. If a valid mapped value is returned, the newly constructed result container will be tied to the return value and no iteration of the contents of the data will be made (since all storage is delegated to the tied object).
tied_as_objects
If a non blessed value is returned from visit_tied then the structure will be iterated normally, and the result container will not be tied at all.
visit_tied
This is because tying to the same class and performing the tie operations will not yield the same results in many cases.
Copies over magic from $orig to $copy.
$orig
$copy
Currently only handles bless. In the future this might be expanded using Variable::Magic but it isn't clear what the correct semantics for magic copying should be.
bless
Called if the DEBUG constant is set with a trace message.
DEBUG
This object can be used as an fmap of sorts - providing an ad-hoc functor interface for Perl data structures.
fmap
In void context this functionality is ignored, but in any other context the default methods will all try to return a value of similar structure, with it's children also fmapped.
Create instance data using the Class::Accessor interface. Data::Visitor inherits Class::Accessor to get a sane new.
new
Then override the callback methods in any way you like. To retain visitor behavior, make sure to retain the functionality of visit_array and visit_hash.
visit_array
visit_hash
Add support for "natural" visiting of trees.
Expand retain_magic to support tying at the very least, or even more with Variable::Magic if possible.
retain_magic
Data::Rmap, Tree::Simple::VisitorFactory, Data::Traverse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visitor_pattern, http://www.ninebynine.org/Software/Learning-Haskell-Notes.html#functors, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functor
Yuval Kogman <nothingmuch@woobling.org>
Copyright (c) 2006-2008 Yuval Kogman. All rights reserved This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
To install Data::Visitor, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Data::Visitor
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Data::Visitor
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.