Provided by: libdata-miscellany-perl_1.100850-3_all bug

NAME

       Data::Miscellany - Collection of miscellaneous subroutines

VERSION

       version 1.100850

SYNOPSIS

         use Data::Miscellany qw/set_push flex_grep/;

         my @foo = (1, 2, 3, 4);
         set_push @foo, 3, 1, 5, 1, 6;
         # @foo is now (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6);

         flex_grep('foo', [ qw/foo bar baz/ ]);                   # true
         flex_grep('foo', [ qw/bar baz flurble/ ]);               # false
         flex_grep('foo', 1..4, 'flurble', [ qw/foo bar baz/ ]);  # true
         flex_grep('foo', 1..4, [ [ 'foo' ] ], [ qw/bar baz/ ]);  # false

DESCRIPTION

       This is a collection of miscellaneous subroutines useful in wide but varying scenarios; a catch-all
       module for things that don't obviously belong anywhere else. Obviously what's useful differs from person
       to person, but this particular collection should be useful in object-oriented frameworks, such as
       Class::Scaffold and Data::Conveyor.

FUNCTIONS

   set_push(ARRAY, LIST)
       Like "push()", but only pushes the item(s) onto the list indicated by the list or list ref (the first
       argument) if the list doesn't already contain it.

       Example:

           @foo = (1, 2, 3, 4);
           set_push @foo, 3, 1, 5, 1, 6;
           # @foo is now (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

   flatten()
       If the first argument is an array reference, it returns the dereferenced array. If the first argument is
       undefined (or there are no arguments), it returns the empty list. Otherwise the argument list is returned
       as is.

   flex_grep(SCALAR, LIST)
       Like "grep()", but compares the first argument to each flattened (see "flatten()") version of each
       element of the list.

       Examples:

           flex_grep('foo', [ qw/foo bar baz/ ])                     # true
           flex_grep('foo', [ qw/bar baz flurble/ ])                 # false
           flex_grep('foo', 1..4, 'flurble', [ qw/foo bar baz/ ])    # true
           flex_grep('foo', 1..4, [ [ 'foo' ] ], [ qw/bar baz/ ])    # false

   is_deeply()
       Like Test::More's "is_deeply()" except that this version respects stringification overloads. If a package
       overloads stringification, it means that it specifies how it wants to be compared. Recent versions of
       Test::More break this behaviour, so here is a working version of "is_deeply()". This subroutine only does
       the comparison; there are no test diagnostics or results recorded or printed anywhere.

   eq_array()
       Like Test::More's "eq_array()" except that this version respects stringification overloads. If a package
       overloads stringification, it means that it specifies how it wants to be compared. Recent versions of
       Test::More break this behaviour, so here is a working version of "eq_array()". This subroutine only does
       the comparison; there are no test diagnostics or results recorded or printed anywhere.

   eq_hash()
       Like Test::More's "eq_hash()" except that this version respects stringification overloads. If a package
       overloads stringification, it means that it specifies how it wants to be compared. Recent versions of
       Test::More break this behaviour, so here is a working version of "eq_hash()". This subroutine only does
       the comparison; there are no test diagnostics or results recorded or printed anywhere.

   is_defined(SCALAR)
       A kind of "defined()" that is aware of Class::Value, which has its own views of what is a defined value
       and what isn't. The issue arose since Class::Value objects are supposed to be used transparently, mixed
       with normal scalar values. However, it is not possible to overload "definedness", and "defined()" used on
       a value object always returns true since the object reference certainly exists. However, what we want to
       know is whether the value encapsulated by the value object is defined.  Additionally, each value class
       can have its own ideas of when its encapsulated value is defined. Therefore, Class::Value has an
       "is_defined()" method.

       This subroutine checks whether its argument is a value object and if so, calls the value object's
       "is_defined()" method. Otherwise, the normal "defined()" is used.

   value_of(SCALAR)
       Stringifies its argument, but returns undefined values (per "is_defined()") as "undef".

   str_value_of(SCALAR)
       Stringifies its argument, but returns undefined values (per "is_defined()") as the empty string.

   class_map(SCALAR, HASH)
       Takes an object or class name as the first argument (if it's an object, the class name used will be the
       package name the object is blessed into).  Takes a hash whose keys are class names as the second
       argument. The hash values are completely arbitrary.

       Looks up the given class name in the hash and returns the corresponding value.  If no such hash key is
       found, the class hierarchy for the given class name is traversed depth-first and checked against the hash
       keys in turn. The first value found is returned.

       If no key is found, a special key, "UNIVERSAL" is used.

       As an example of how this might be used, consider a hierarchy of exception classes. When evaluating each
       exception, we want to know how severe this exception is, so we define constants for "RC_OK" (meaning it's
       informational only), "RC_ERROR" (meaning some sort of action should be taken) and "RC_INTERNAL_ERROR"
       (meaning something has gone badly wrong and we might halt processing). In the following table assume that
       if you have names like "Foo::Bar" and "Foo::Bar::Baz", then the latter subclasses the former.

           %map = (
               'UNIVERSAL'                                => RC_INTERNAL_ERROR,
               'My::Exception::Business'                  => RC_ERROR,
               'My::Exception::Internal'                  => RC_INTERNAL_ERROR,
               'My::Exception::Business::ValueNormalized' => RC_OK,
           );

       Assuming that "My::Exception::Business::IllegalValue" exists and that it subclasses
       "My::Exception::Business", here are some outcomes:

           class_map('My::Exception::Business::IllegalValue', \%map)     # RC_ERROR
           class_map('My::Exception::Business::ValueNormalzed', \%map)   # RC_OK

   trim(STRING)
       Trims off whitespace at the beginning and end of the string and returns the trimmed string.

INSTALLATION

       See perlmodinstall for information and options on installing Perl modules.

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

       No bugs have been reported.

       Please report any bugs or feature requests through the web interface at
       <http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Data-Miscellany>.

AVAILABILITY

       The latest version of this module is available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Visit
       <http://www.perl.com/CPAN/> to find a CPAN site near you, or see
       <http://search.cpan.org/dist/Data-Miscellany/>.

       The development version lives at <http://github.com/hanekomu/Data-Miscellany/>.  Instead of sending
       patches, please fork this project using the standard git and github infrastructure.

AUTHOR

         Marcel Gruenauer <marcel@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       This software is copyright (c) 2004 by Marcel Gruenauer.

       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5
       programming language system itself.