{
package Foo;
use fields qw(foo bar _Foo_private);
sub new {
my Foo $self = shift;
unless (ref $self) {
$self = fields::new($self);
$self->{_Foo_private} = "this is Foo's secret";
}
$self->{foo} = 10;
$self->{bar} = 20;
return $self;
}
}
my Foo $var = Foo::->new;
$var->{foo} = 42;
# this will generate a compile-time error
$var->{zap} = 42;
# subclassing
{
package Bar;
use base 'Foo';
use fields qw(baz _Bar_private); # not shared with Foo
sub new {
my $class = shift;
my $self = fields::new($class);
$self->SUPER::new(); # init base fields
$self->{baz} = 10; # init own fields
$self->{_Bar_private} = "this is Bar's secret";
return $self;
}
}
DESCRIPTION
The `fields' pragma enables compile-time verified class
fields.
NOTE: The current implementation keeps the declared fields
in the %FIELDS hash of the calling package, but this may
change in future versions. Do not update the %FIELDS hash
directly, because it must be created at compile-time for it
to be fully useful, as is done by this pragma.
If a typed lexical variable holding a reference is used to
access a hash element and a package with the same name as
the type has declared class fields using this pragma, then
the operation is turned into an array access at compile
time.
The related `base' pragma will combine fields from base
classes and any fields declared using the `fields' pragma.
This enables field inheritance to work properly.
Field names that start with an underscore character are made
private to the class and are not visible to subclasses.
Inherited fields can be overridden but will generate a
warning if used together with the `-w' switch.
The effect of all this is that you can have objects with
named fields which are as compact and as fast arrays to
access. This only works as long as the objects are accessed
through properly typed variables. If the objects are not
typed, access is only checked at run time.
The following functions are supported:
new fields::new() creates and blesses a pseudo-hash
comprised of the fields declared using the `fields'
pragma into the specified class. This makes it
possible to write a constructor like this:
package Critter::Sounds;
use fields qw(cat dog bird);
sub new {
my Critter::Sounds $self = shift;
$self = fields::new($self) unless ref $self;
$self->{cat} = 'meow'; # scalar element
@$self{'dog','bird'} = ('bark','tweet'); # slice
return $self;
}
phash fields::phash() can be used to create and initialize
a plain (unblessed) pseudo-hash. This function
should always be used instead of creating pseudo-
hashes directly.
If the first argument is a reference to an array,
the pseudo-hash will be created with keys from that
array. If a second argument is supplied, it must
also be a reference to an array whose elements will
be used as the values. If the second array contains
less elements than the first, the trailing elements
of the pseudo-hash will not be initialized. This
makes it particularly useful for creating a pseudo-
hash from subroutine arguments:
sub dogtag {
my $tag = fields::phash([qw(name rank ser_num)], [@_]);
}
fields::phash() also accepts a list of key-value
pairs that will be used to construct the pseudo
hash. Examples:
my $tag = fields::phash(name => "Joe",
rank => "captain",
ser_num => 42);
my $pseudohash = fields::phash(%args);
SEE ALSO
the base manpage, the Pseudo-hashes: Using an array as a
hash entry in the perlref manpage