Hash::FieldHash(3pm)

NAME

Hash::FieldHash - A lightweight field hash implementation

VERSION

This document describes Hash::FieldHash version 0.10.

SYNOPSIS

use Hash::FieldHash qw(:all);

fieldhash my %foo;

fieldhashes \my(%bar, %baz);

{
        my $o = Something->new();

        $foo{$o} = 42;

        print $foo{$o}; # => 42
}
# when $o is released, $foo{$o} is also deleted,
# so %foo is empty in here.

# in a class
{
        package Foo;
        use Hash::FieldHash qw(:all);

        fieldhash my %bar, 'bar'; # make an accessor
}

my $obj = bless {}, 'Foo';
$obj->bar(10); # does $bar{$obj} = 10

DESCRIPTION

"Hash::FieldHash" provides the field hash mechanism which supports the inside-out technique.

You may know "Hash::Util::FieldHash". It's a very useful module, but
too complex to understand all the functions and only available in 5.10. "H::U::F::Compat" is available for pre-5.10, but it seems too slow to
use.

This is an alternative to "H::U::F" with following features:

Simpler interface: "Hash::FieldHash" provides a few functions: "fieldhash()" and
"fieldhashes()". That's enough.
Higher performance: "Hash::FieldHash" is faster than "Hash::Util::FieldHash", because
its internals use simpler structures.
Relic support: Although "Hash::FieldHash" uses a new feature introduced in Perl
5.10, the uvar magic for hashes described in "GUTS" in Hash::Util::Fieldhash, it supports Perl 5.8 using the traditional
tie-hash layer.

INTERFACE

Exportable functions: "fieldhash(%hash, ?$name, ?$package)"
Creates a field hash. The first argument must be a hash.

Optional $name and $package indicate the name of the field, which will create rw-accessors, using the same name as $name.

Returns nothing.; "fieldhashes(@hash_refs)"
Creates a number of field hashes. All the arguments must be hash
references.

Returns nothing.; "from_hash($object, \%fields)"
Fills the named fields associated with $object with %fields. The keys of %fields can be simple or fully qualified.

Returns $object.; "to_hash($object, ?-fully_qualify)"
Serializes $object into a hash reference.

If the "-fully_qualify" option is supplied , field keys are fully
qualified.

For example:

package MyClass;
use FieldHash qw(:all);

fieldhash my %foo => 'foo';

sub new{
my $class = shift;
my $self = bless {}, $class;
return from_hash($self, @_);

}

package MyDerivedClass;
use parent -norequire => 'MyClass';
use FieldHash qw(:all);

fieldhash my %bar => 'bar';

package main;

my $o = MyDerivedClass->new(foo => 10, bar => 20);
my $p = MyDerivedClass->new('MyClass::foo' => 10, 'MyDerivedClass::bar' => 20);

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper($o->to_hash());
# $VAR1 = { foo => 10, bar => 20 }

print Dumper($o->to_hash(-fully_qualify));
# $VAR1 = { 'MyClass::foo' => 10, 'MyDerived::bar' => 20 }

ROBUSTNESS

Thread support: As "Hash::Util::FieldHash" does, "Hash::FieldHash" fully supports
threading using the "CLONE" method.
Memory leaks: "Hash::FieldHash" itself does not leak memory, but it may leak memory
when you uses hash references as field hash keys because of an issue of perl 5.10.0.

NOTES

The type of field hash keys: "Hash::FieldHash" accepts only references and registered addresses as
its keys, whereas "Hash::Util::FieldHash" accepts any type of scalars.; According to "The Generic Object" in Hash::Util::FieldHash, Nonreference keys in "H::U::F" are used for class fields. That is, all the fields defined by "H::U::F" act as both object fields and class fields by default. It seems confusing; if you do not want them to be class
fields, you must check the type of $self explicitly. In addition, these class fields are never inherited. This behavior seems problematic, so "Hash::FieldHash" restricts the type of keys.
The ID of field hash keys: While "Hash::Util::FieldHash" uses "refaddr" as the IDs of field hash
keys, "Hash::FieldHash" allocates arbitrary integers as the IDs.

DEPENDENCIES

Perl 5.8.1 or later, and a C compiler.

BUGS

No bugs have been reported.

Please report any bugs or feature requests to the author.

AUTHOR

Goro Fuji <gfuji(at)cpan.org>.

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

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

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