Re: arrays as pl/perl input arguments [PATCH]

On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 12:06:33AM -0700, Alex Hunsaker wrote:
> > I had supposed that it would be possible to do the string conversion
> > lazily, ie, only if the string value was actually demanded.
>
> Yep, In-fact if we wanted we could even die (or throw an exception in
> other language speak :) ) when the string value is demanded.

I played with this a little and it is fairly easy to make a variable
such that $a is the string representation and $a[0] the first value of
the array. The problem is that you can't pass such a variable into a
subroutine.

I was thinking however, if the parameters if the function have names
you can use, then you can make it work. $_[0] would still go the old
way, but the named parameters could be the array.

====================== cut ======================
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
no strict 'vars';
package MyClass;

sub TIESCALAR {
my $class = shift;
my $self = shift;
return bless $self, $class;
}

sub FETCH {
my $self = shift;
return join(",", @$self);
}

my @a=(1,2);

tie $a, "MyClass", \(at)a;

print "\$a='$a'\n";
print "\$a[0]='$a[0]'\n";

--
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog(at)svana(dot)org> http://svana.org/kleptog/
> Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism,
> when hate for people other than your own comes first.
> - Charles de Gaulle