Tie::Memoize(3pm) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Tie::Memoize(3pm)
NAME
Tie::Memoize - add data to hash when needed
SYNOPSIS
require Tie::Memoize;
tie %hash, 'Tie::Memoize',
\&fetch, # The rest is optional
$DATA, \&exists,
{%ini_value}, {%ini_existence};
DESCRIPTION
This package allows a tied hash to autoload its values on the first access, and to use the cached
value on the following accesses.
Only read-accesses (via fetching the value or "exists") result in calls to the functions; the modify-accesses modifyaccesses
accesses are performed as on a normal hash.
The required arguments during "tie" are the hash, the package, and the reference to the "FETCH"ing
function. The optional arguments are an arbitrary scalar $data, the reference to the "EXISTS" func-tion, function,
tion, and initial values of the hash and of the existence cache.
Both the "FETCH"ing function and the "EXISTS" functions have the same signature: the arguments are
"$key, $data"; $data is the same value as given as argument during tie()ing. Both functions should
return an empty list if the value does not exist. If "EXISTS" function is different from the
"FETCH"ing function, it should return a TRUE value on success. The "FETCH"ing function should return
the intended value if the key is valid.
Inheriting from Tie::Memoize
The structure of the tied() data is an array reference with elements
0: cache of known values
1: cache of known existence of keys
2: FETCH function
3: EXISTS function
4: $data
The rest is for internal usage of this package. In particular, if TIEHASH is overwritten, it should
call SUPER::TIEHASH.
EXAMPLE
sub slurp {
my ($key, $dir) = shift;
open my $h, '<', "$dir/$key" or return;
local $/; <$h> # slurp it all
}
sub exists { my ($key, $dir) = shift; return -f "$dir/$key" }
tie %hash, 'Tie::Memoize', \&slurp, $directory, \&exists,
{ fake_file1 => $content1, fake_file2 => $content2 },
{ pretend_does_not_exists => 0, known_to_exist => 1 };
This example treats the slightly modified contents of $directory as a hash. The modifications are
that the keys fake_file1 and fake_file2 fetch values $content1 and $content2, and pre-tend_does_not_exists pretend_does_not_exists
tend_does_not_exists will never be accessed. Additionally, the existence of known_to_exist is never
checked (so if it does not exists when its content is needed, the user of %hash may be confused).
BUGS
FIRSTKEY and NEXTKEY methods go through the keys which were already read, not all the possible keys
of the hash.
AUTHOR
Ilya Zakharevich <mailto:perl-module-hash-memoize@ilyaz.org.
perl v5.8.8 2001-09-21 Tie::Memoize(3pm)
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