NAME

Sub::Nary - Try to count how many elements a subroutine can return in list context.

VERSION

Version 0.03

SYNOPSIS

    use Sub::Nary;

    my $sn = Sub::Nary->new();
    my $r  = $sn->nary(\&hlagh);

DESCRIPTION

This module uses the B framework to walk into subroutines and try to guess how many scalars are likely to be returned in list context. It's not always possible to give a definitive answer to this question at compile time, so the results are given in terms of "probability of return" (to be understood in a sense described below).

METHODS

new

The usual constructor. Currently takes no argument.

nary $coderef

Takes a code reference to a named or anonymous subroutine, and returns a hash reference whose keys are the possible numbers of returning scalars, and the corresponding values the "probability" to get them. The special key 'list' is used to denote a possibly infinite number of returned arguments. The return value hence would look at

    { 1 => 0.2, 2 => 0.4, 4 => 0.3, list => 0.1 }

that is, we should get 1 scalar 1 time over 5 and so on. The sum of all values is 1. The returned result, and all the results obtained from intermediate subs, are cached into the object.

flush

Flushes the Sub::Nary object cache. Returns the object itself.

PROBABILITY OF RETURN

The probability is computed as such :

• When branching, each branch is considered equally possible.

  For example, the subroutine

      sub simple {
       if (rand < 0.1) {
        return 1;
       } else {
        return 2, 3;
       }
      }

  is seen returning one or two arguments each with probability 1/2. As for

      sub hlagh {
       my $x = rand;
       if ($x < 0.1) {
        return 1, 2, 3;
       } elsif ($x > 0.9) {
        return 4, 5;
       }
      }

  it is considered to return 3 scalars with probability 1/2, 2 with probability 1/2 * 1/2 = 1/4 and 1 (when the two tests fail, the last computed value is returned, which here is $x > 0.9 evaluated in the scalar context of the test) with remaining probability 1/4.

• The total probability law for a given returning point is the convolution product of the probabilities of its list elements.

  As such,

      sub notsosimple {
       return 1, simple(), 2
      }

  returns 3 or 4 arguments with probability 1/2 ; and

      sub double {
       return simple(), simple()
      }

  never returns 1 argument but returns 2 with probability 1/2 * 1/2 = 1/4, 3 with probability 1/2 * 1/2 + 1/2 * 1/2 = 1/2 and 4 with probability 1/4 too.

• If a core function may return different numbers of scalars, each kind is considered equally possible.

  For example, stat returns 13 elements on success and 0 on error. The according probability will then be { 0 => 0.5, 13 => 0.5 }.

• The list state is absorbing in regard of all the other ones.

  This is just a pedantic way to say that "list + fixed length = list". That's why

      sub listy {
       return 1, simple(), @_
      }

  is considered as always returning an unbounded list.

  Also, the convolution law does not behave the same when list elements are involved : in the following example,

      sub oneorlist {
       if (rand < 0.1) {
        return 1
       } else {
        return @_
       }
      }
  
      sub composed {
       return oneorlist(), oneorlist()
      }

  composed returns 2 scalars with probability 1/2 * 1/2 = 1/4 and a list with probability 3/4.

EXPORT

An object-oriented module shouldn't export any function, and so does this one.

CAVEATS

The algorithm may be pessimistic (things seen as list while they are of fixed length) but not optimistic (the opposite, duh).

wantarray isn't specialized when encountered in the optree.

DEPENDENCIES

perl 5.8.1.

Carp (standard since perl 5), B (since perl 5.005) and XSLoader (since perl 5.006).

AUTHOR

Vincent Pit, <perl at profvince.com>, http://www.profvince.com.

You can contact me by mail or on #perl @ FreeNode (vincent or Prof_Vince).

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-b-nary at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Sub-Nary. 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 Sub::Nary

Tests code coverage report is available at http://www.profvince.com/perl/cover/Sub-Nary.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Sebastien Aperghis-Tramoni for helping to name this module.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

Copyright 2008 Vincent Pit, all rights reserved.

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

cpanm Sub::Nary

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Sub::Nary