NAME
Syntax::Feature::Qwa - qwa(), qwh() and qwk() quote-like operators to
create arrayrefs and hashrefs
SYNOPSIS
use syntax qw/qwa/;
use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper qwa(foo bar baz quux);
# [
# 'foo',
# 'bar',
# 'baz',
# 'quux',
# ]
print Dumper qwh(foo bar baz quux);
# {
# 'foo' => 'bar',
# 'baz' => 'quux',
# }
print Dumper qwk(foo bar baz quux);
# {
# 'foo' => 1,
# 'bar' => 2,
# 'baz' => 3,
# 'quux' => 4,
# }
DESCRIPTION
Perl's word list operator ("qw()") is really nice. It allows you to
build simple lists without needing much punctuation. But it's quite
common to see it wrapped by additional punctuation in the form of:
my $array = [qw(foo bar baz)];
It would be quite nice to have a version of the word list operator which
returned an arrayref instead of a list. That's where this module comes
in. It provides a "word list arrayref" operator:
my $array = qwa(foo bar baz);
It also provides companion "word list hashref" and "word list hashref
keys" operators.
Use with syntax.pm
This module is intended to be used with the syntax module. This allows
you to switch on multiple syntax extensions in one line:
use syntax 'ql', 'qwa', 'io';
Use without syntax.pm
It is also possible to use this module without syntax.pm:
use Syntax::Feature::Qwa;
EQUIVALENTS
If you want to rewrite code using this module to remove its dependency
on it, or if you just want to better understand how it works, here are
some equivalents between this module's operators, and how they'd be
expressed without this module.
qwa()
my $arrayref = qwa(Foo Bar Baz);
my $arrayref = [ qw(Foo Bar Bar) ];
qwh()
my $hashref = qwh(Foo Bar Baz);
my $hashref = +{ qw(Foo Bar Bar) };
qwk()
my $hashref = qwk(Foo Bar Baz);
my $hashref = +{ do { my $i = 0; map { $_, ++$i } qw(Foo Bar Bar) } };
EXAMPLES
Hashref keys as lookup tables
# Create a lookup table
my $days = qwk(Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun);
# The task is to sort these into their weekly order
my @list = qw(Fri Tue Wed);
# Easy!
my @sorted_list = sort { $days->{$a} <=> $days->{$b} } @list;
Hashref keys for smart matching
my $admins = qwk(alice bob carol);
my $login = get_current_user();
if ($login ~~ $admins)
{
...
}
Arrayrefs for smart matching
The example above also works using arrayrefs. For smaller lists,
arrayrefs might be faster; for larger lists hashrefs probably will be.
my $admins = qwa(alice bob carol);
my $login = get_current_user();
if ($login ~~ $admins)
{
...
}
BUGS
Please report any bugs to
<http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Syntax-Feature-Qwa>.
SEE ALSO
syntax, Syntax::Feature::Ql, PerlX::QuoteOperator.
AUTHOR
Toby Inkster <tobyink@cpan.org>.
COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE
This software is copyright (c) 2012 by Toby Inkster.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.