_STRING $string

The "_STRING" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test to see if a value is a normal non-false string of non-zero length.

Note that this will NOT do anything magic to deal with the special '0' false negative case, but will return it.

  # '0' not considered valid data
  my $name = _STRING(shift) or die "Bad name";
  
  # '0' is considered valid data
  my $string = _STRING($_[0]) ? shift : die "Bad string";

Please also note that this function expects a normal string. It does not support overloading or other magic techniques to get a string.

Returns the string as a conveince if it is a valid string, or "undef" if not.

_IDENTIFIER $string

The "_IDENTIFIER" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test to see if a value is a string that is a valid Perl identifier.

Returns the string as a convenience if it is a valid identifier, or "undef" if not.

_CLASS $string

The "_CLASS" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test to see if a value is a string that is a valid Perl class.

This function only checks that the format is valid, not that the class is actually loaded. It also assumes "normalised" form, and does not accept class names such as "::Foo" or "D'Oh".

Returns the string as a convenience if it is a valid class name, or "undef" if not.

_CLASSISA $string, $class

The "_CLASSISA" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test to see if a value is a string that is a particularly class, or a subclass of it.

This function checks that the format is valid and calls the ->isa method on the class name. It does not check that the class is actually loaded.

It also assumes "normalised" form, and does not accept class names such as "::Foo" or "D'Oh".

Returns the string as a convenience if it is a valid class name, or "undef" if not.

_CLASSDOES $string, $role

This routine behaves exactly like "_CLASSISA", but checks with "->DOES" rather than "->isa". This is probably only a good idea to use on Perl 5.10 or later, when UNIVERSAL::DOES has been implemented.

_SUBCLASS $string, $class

The "_SUBCLASS" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test to see if a value is a string that is a subclass of a specified class.

This function checks that the format is valid and calls the ->isa method on the class name. It does not check that the class is actually loaded.

It also assumes "normalised" form, and does not accept class names such as "::Foo" or "D'Oh".

Returns the string as a convenience if it is a valid class name, or "undef" if not.

_NUMBER $scalar

The "_NUMBER" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test to see if a value is a number. That is, it is defined and perl thinks it's a number.

This function is basically a Params::Util-style wrapper around the Scalar::Util "looks_like_number" function.

Returns the value as a convience, or "undef" if the value is not a number.

_POSINT $integer

The "_POSINT" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test to see if a value is a positive integer (of any length).

Returns the value as a convience, or "undef" if the value is not a positive integer.

The name itself is derived from the XML schema constraint of the same name.

_NONNEGINT $integer

The "_NONNEGINT" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test to see if a value is a non-negative integer (of any length). That is, a positive integer, or zero.

Returns the value as a convience, or "undef" if the value is not a non-negative integer.

As with other tests that may return false values, care should be taken to test via "defined" in boolean validy contexts.

  unless ( defined _NONNEGINT($value) ) {
     die "Invalid value";
  }

The name itself is derived from the XML schema constraint of the same name.

_SCALAR \$scalar

The "_SCALAR" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test for a raw and unblessed "SCALAR" reference, with content of non-zero length.

For a version that allows zero length "SCALAR" references, see the "_SCALAR0" function.

Returns the "SCALAR" reference itself as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not a "SCALAR" reference.

_SCALAR0 \$scalar

The "_SCALAR0" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test for a raw and unblessed "SCALAR0" reference, allowing content of zero-length.

For a simpler "give me some content" version that requires non-zero length, "_SCALAR" function.

Returns the "SCALAR" reference itself as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not a "SCALAR" reference.

_ARRAY $value

The "_ARRAY" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test for a raw and unblessed "ARRAY" reference containing at least one element of any kind.

For a more basic form that allows zero length ARRAY references, see the "_ARRAY0" function.

Returns the "ARRAY" reference itself as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not an "ARRAY" reference.

_ARRAY0 $value

The "_ARRAY0" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test for a raw and unblessed "ARRAY" reference, allowing "ARRAY" references that contain no elements.

For a more basic "An array of something" form that also requires at least one element, see the "_ARRAY" function.

Returns the "ARRAY" reference itself as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not an "ARRAY" reference.

_ARRAYLIKE $value

The "_ARRAYLIKE" function tests whether a given scalar value can respond to array dereferencing. If it can, the value is returned. If it cannot, "_ARRAYLIKE" returns "undef".

_HASH $value

The "_HASH" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test for a raw and unblessed "HASH" reference with at least one entry.

For a version of this function that allows the "HASH" to be empty, see the "_HASH0" function.

Returns the "HASH" reference itself as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not an "HASH" reference.

_HASH0 $value

The "_HASH0" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test for a raw and unblessed "HASH" reference, regardless of the "HASH" content.

For a simpler "A hash of something" version that requires at least one element, see the "_HASH" function.

Returns the "HASH" reference itself as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not an "HASH" reference.

_HASHLIKE $value

The "_HASHLIKE" function tests whether a given scalar value can respond to hash dereferencing. If it can, the value is returned. If it cannot, "_HASHLIKE" returns "undef".

_CODE $value

The "_CODE" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test for a raw and unblessed "CODE" reference.

Returns the "CODE" reference itself as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not an "CODE" reference.

_CODELIKE $value

The "_CODELIKE" is the more generic version of "_CODE". Unlike "_CODE", which checks for an explicit "CODE" reference, the "_CODELIKE" function also includes things that act like them, such as blessed objects that overload '&{}'.

Please note that in the case of objects overloaded with '&{}', you will almost always end up also testing it in 'bool' context at some stage.

For example:

  sub foo {
      my $code1 = _CODELIKE(shift) or die "No code param provided";
      my $code2 = _CODELIKE(shift);
      if ( $code2 ) {
           print "Got optional second code param";
      }
  }

As such, you will most likely always want to make sure your class has at least the following to allow it to evaluate to true in boolean context.

  # Always evaluate to true in boolean context
  use overload 'bool' => sub () { 1 };

Returns the callable value as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not callable.

Note - This function was formerly known as _CALLABLE but has been renamed for greater symmetry with the other _XXXXLIKE functions.

The use of _CALLABLE has been deprecated. It will continue to work, but with a warning, until end-2006, then will be removed.

I apologise for any inconvenience caused.

_INVOCANT $value

This routine tests whether the given value is a valid method invocant. This can be either an instance of an object, or a class name.

If so, the value itself is returned. Otherwise, "_INVOCANT" returns "undef".

_INSTANCE $object, $class

The "_INSTANCE" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test for an object of a particular class in a strictly correct manner.

Returns the object itself as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not an object of that type.

_INSTANCEDOES $object, $role

This routine behaves exactly like "_INSTANCE", but checks with "->DOES" rather than "->isa". This is probably only a good idea to use on Perl 5.10 or later, when UNIVERSAL::DOES has been implemented.

_REGEX $value

The "_REGEX" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test for a regular expression.

Returns the value itself as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not a regular expression.

_SET \@array, $class

The "_SET" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test for set of at least one object of a particular class in a strictly correct manner.

The set is provided as a reference to an "ARRAY" of objects of the class provided.

For an alternative function that allows zero-length sets, see the "_SET0" function.

Returns the "ARRAY" reference itself as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not a set of that class.

_SET0 \@array, $class

The "_SET0" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test for a set of objects of a particular class in a strictly correct manner, allowing for zero objects.

The set is provided as a reference to an "ARRAY" of objects of the class provided.

For an alternative function that requires at least one object, see the "_SET" function.

Returns the "ARRAY" reference itself as a convenience, or "undef" if the value provided is not a set of that class.

_HANDLE

The "_HANDLE" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to test whether or not a single scalar value is a file handle.

Unfortunately, in Perl the definition of a file handle can be a little bit fuzzy, so this function is likely to be somewhat imperfect (at first anyway).

That said, it is implement as well or better than the other file handle detectors in existance (and we stole from the best of them).

_DRIVER $string

  sub foo {
    my $class = _DRIVER(shift, 'My::Driver::Base') or die "Bad driver";
    ...
  }

The "_DRIVER" function is intended to be imported into your package, and provides a convenient way to load and validate a driver class.

The most common pattern when taking a driver class as a parameter is to check that the name is a class (i.e. check against _CLASS) and then to load the class (if it exists) and then ensure that the class returns true for the isa method on some base driver name.

Return the value as a convenience, or "undef" if the value is not a class name, the module does not exist, the module does not load, or the class fails the isa test.