NAME

Class::RHash - objects based on a restricted hash

SYNOPSIS

    package My::Class;

    use base qw/Class::RHash/;

    sub new {
        my $c = shift;
        return $c->attrs(
            scalar => "hello world",
            array  => [ "hello", "world" ],
            hash   => { hello => "world" },
        );
    }

    package main;

    my $obj = My::Class->new;
    
    print $obj->scalar;
    print ( $obj->array )[1];
    print $obj->hash("hello");

    $obj->scalar("foobar");
    $obj->array("foo", "bar");    # pushes onto the array
    $obj->array(["foo", "bar"]);  # sets the array
    $obj->hash( foo => "bar" );   # changes a key
    $obj->hash( {foo => "bar"} ); # sets all keys

DESCRIPTION

Creates objects based on a restricted hash, with intelligent AUTOLOADed accessor methods. You should use this as a base class.

METHODS

attrs

Sets and gets the allowed attributes of the object (keys of the hash).

$obj->attrs

Returns a list of the attributes of the object.

$obj->attrs(foo => "bar")

Adds attributes to an existing object. This is to construct objects in subclasses, e.g.

    sub new {
        my $c = shift;
        my $s = $c->SUPER::new();
        return $s->attrs(
            new => "attrs",
        );
    }

. Croaks if any of the given attrs exist already, to help prevent classes treading on each other.

AUTOLOAD

Provides accessors for the elements of the hash. Attempts to call a method which does not have a corresponding key in the hash will pass the call to NEXT::ACTUAL::AUTOLOAD (see the NEXT manpage).

The behaviour of the method depends on whether the value of the attribute is a hashref, an arrayref or some other type of scalar. In the descriptions below, {} refers to a hashref argument, [] to an arrayref and "" to some other scalar.

Hashref values

$obj->hash( "" )

Returns the entry in the hash with the given key.

$obj->hash( "", ... )

Sets or gets the entry in the hash with the given key. What happens depends on its type, in the same way as for attributes; so if the value is an arrayref, a scalar will be pushed or an arrayref will set the whole thing; if the value is a hashref then $obj->hash( "key1", "key2" ) will return $obj->{key1}{key2}; &c.

$obj->hash

Returns the whole hash, as a list in list context or a hashref in scalar context.

Arrayref values

These always return the (new) array, as a list in list context or an arrayref in scalar context.

$obj->array( [] )

Sets the whole array.

$obj->array( "", ... )

Pushes values onto the array.

$obj->array

Just returns the array.

Other scalar values

$obj->scalar

Returns the value.

$obj->scalar( "" )

Sets and returns the new value.

SEE ALSO

Hash::Util

AUTHOR

Ben Morrow <Class-RHash@morrow.me.uk>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2004 Ben Morrow

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.2 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.