NAME
IO::String - Emulate IO::File interface for in-core strings
SYNOPSIS
use IO::String;
$io = IO::String->new;
$io = IO::String->new($var);
tie *IO, 'IO::String';
# read data
<$io>;
$io->getline;
read($io, $buf, 100);
# write data
print $io "string\n";
$io->print(@data);
syswrite($io, $buf, 100);
select $io;
printf "Some text %s\n", $str;
# seek
$pos = $io->getpos;
$io->setpos(0); # rewind
$io->seek(-30, -1);DESCRIPTION
The IO::String module provide the IO::File interface for in-core strings. An IO::String object can be attached to a string, and will make it possible to use the normal file operations for reading or writing data, as well as seeking to various locations of the string.
The string_ref() method will return a reference to the string that is attached to the IO::String object. Mainly useful when you let the IO::String create an internal buffer to write into.
There is a difference between the setpos() and seek() methods in that seek() will extend the string (with the specified padding) if you go to a location past the end, while setpos() will just snap back to the end.
The pad() method makes it possible to specify the padding to use if the string is extended by either the seek() or truncate() methods. It is a single character and defaults to "\0".
In addition to getpos/setpos/tell/seek you can also use the pos() method to both set and get the current position within the string.
The IO::String module provide an interface compatible with IO::File as distributed with IO-1.20. The following methods are not available: new_from_fd, fdopen, format_write, format_page_number, format_lines_per_page, format_lines_left, format_name, format_top_name.
The new() and the open() methods take different parameters since we open strings instead of file names. The write() and syswrite() method allow the length parameter to be left out.
BUGS
The perl TIEHANDLE interface is still not complete. There are quite a few file operations that will not yet invoke any method on the tied object. See perltie for details.
SEE ALSO
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1998 Gisle Aas.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.