autovivification - Lexically disable autovivification.
Version 0.07
no autovivification; my $hashref; my $a = $hashref->{key_a}; # $hashref stays undef if (exists $hashref->{option}) { # Still undef ... } delete $hashref->{old}; # Still undef again $hashref->{new} = $value; # Vivifies to { new => $value }
When an undefined variable is dereferenced, it gets silently upgraded to an array or hash reference (depending of the type of the dereferencing). This behaviour is called autovivification and usually does what you mean (e.g. when you store a value) but it's sometimes unnatural or surprising because your variables gets populated behind your back. This is especially true when several levels of dereferencing are involved, in which case all levels are vivified up to the last, or when it happens in intuitively read-only constructs like exists.
exists
This pragma lets you disable autovivification for some constructs and optionally throws a warning or an error when it would have happened.
unimport @opts
Magically called when no autovivification @opts is encountered. Enables the features given in @opts, which can be :
no autovivification @opts
@opts
'fetch'
Turns off autovivification for rvalue dereferencing expressions, such as :
$value = $arrayref->[$idx] $value = $hashref->{$key} keys %$hashref values %$hashref
Starting from perl 5.11, it also covers keys and values on array references :
5.11
keys
values
keys @$arrayref values @$arrayref
When the expression would have autovivified, undef is returned for a plain fetch, while keys and values return 0 in scalar context and the empty list in list context.
undef
0
'exists'
Turns off autovivification for dereferencing expressions that are parts of an exists, such as :
exists $arrayref->[$idx] exists $hashref->{$key}
'' is returned when the expression would have autovivified.
''
'delete'
Turns off autovivification for dereferencing expressions that are parts of a delete, such as :
delete
delete $arrayref->[$idx] delete $hashref->{$key}
undef is returned when the expression would have autovivified.
'store'
Turns off autovivification for lvalue dereferencing expressions, such as :
$arrayref->[$idx] = $value $hashref->{$key} = $value for ($arrayref->[$idx]) { ... } for ($hashref->{$key}) { ... } function($arrayref->[$idx]) function($hashref->{$key})
An exception is thrown if vivification is needed to store the value, which means that effectively you can only assign to levels that are already defined In the example, this would require $arrayref (resp. $hashref) to already be an array (resp. hash) reference.
$arrayref
$hashref
'warn'
Emits a warning when an autovivification is avoided.
'strict'
Throws an exception when an autovivification is avoided.
Each call to unimport adds the specified features to the ones already in use in the current lexical scope.
unimport
When @opts is empty, it defaults to qw/fetch exists delete/.
qw/fetch exists delete/
import @opts
Magically called when use autovivification @opts is encountered. Disables the features given in @opts, which can be the same as for "unimport".
use autovivification @opts
Each call to import removes the specified features to the ones already in use in the current lexical scope.
import
When @opts is empty, it defaults to restoring the original Perl autovivification behaviour.
A_THREADSAFE
True iff the module could have been built with thread-safety features enabled. This constant only has a meaning with your perl is threaded ; otherwise, it'll always be false.
A_FORKSAFE
True iff this module could have been built with fork-safety features enabled. This will always be true except on Windows where it's false for perl 5.10.0 and below .
The pragma doesn't apply when one dereferences the returned value of an array or hash slice, as in @array[$id]->{member} or @hash{$key}->{member}. This syntax is valid Perl, yet it's discouraged as the slice is here useless since the dereferencing enforces scalar context. If warnings are turned on, Perl will complain about one-element slices.
@array[$id]->{member}
@hash{$key}->{member}
perl 5.8.3.
A C compiler. This module may happen to build with a C++ compiler as well, but don't rely on it, as no guarantee is made in this regard.
XSLoader (standard since perl 5.006).
perlref.
Vincent Pit, <perl at profvince.com>, http://www.profvince.com.
<perl at profvince.com>
You can contact me by mail or on irc.perl.org (vincent).
irc.perl.org
Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-autovivification at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=autovivification. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.
bug-autovivification at rt.cpan.org
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
perldoc autovivification
Tests code coverage report is available at http://www.profvince.com/perl/cover/autovivification.
Matt S. Trout asked for it.
Copyright 2009,2010 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.
To install autovivification, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm autovivification
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install autovivification
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.