NAME

stringification - allow or forbid implicitly converting references into strings

SYNOPSIS

 no stringification;

 my $array = [ 1, 2, 3 ];

 print "My array is $array\n";  # dies

DESCRIPTION

Normally in Perl, a reference may be implicitly converted into a string, usually of a form like HASH(0x1234567).

This module provides a lexically-scoped pragma which alters the behaviour of the following operations:

 "$ref"             # stringify
 $ref . "foo"       # concat
 lc $ref
 lcfirst $ref
 uc $ref
 ucfirst $ref
 quotemeta $ref
 $ref =~ m//
 split //, $ref
 join $ref, @strs
 join "", $ref
 print $ref
 say $ref

When disabled by no stringification, all of these operations will fail with an exception when invoked on a non-object reference.

 $ perl -E 'no stringification; my $arr = []; say "Array is $arr"'
 Attempted to concat a reference at -e line 1.

The effects of this module are lexically scoped; to re-enable stringification of references during a lexical scope, use stringification again.

TODO

• More testing, especially around interoperatbility with other op-hooking modules.

• Hook more ops; including

   $ref =~ s///;
   s//$ref/;
   substr( $ref, 0, 0 )
   substr( $str, 0, 0, $ref )
   substr( $str, 0, 0 ) = $ref

• Consider whether to detect for objects that don't have overload magic, and forbid these too.

• A mode where string conversions just give warnings, rather than outright failures.

   no stringification 'warn';

AUTHOR

Paul Evans <leonerd@leonerd.org.uk>