Re: How do I obtain a list of values for all the properties of a Word document using Win32::OLE?

Second, there seems to be a property whose value itself recurses, because I keep getting the same properties over and over after a short period of time

When you brought up your problem in the CB, I postulated that the reason you were running our of memory is that properties formed an infinite loop. You've just confirmed this.

The problem isn't in Data::Dumper. It detects loops in data.

$ perl -MData::Dumper -e'my $x = {}; $x->{x} = \$x; print Dumper $x'
$VAR1 = {
          'x' => \$VAR1
        };
[download]

The problem is that Win32::OLE doesn't do such checks. When it receives an object, it create a new Perl object to serve as a bridge. Data::Dumper correctly thinks this is a different object, so it proceeds to dig deeper.

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Re^2: How do I obtain a list of values for all the properties of a Word document using Win32::OLE? by romandas (Pilgrim) on Jun 11, 2009 at 18:38 UTC
I understand what you're saying, but I would appreciate some clarification on a couple things... You mentioned that Win32::OLE doesn't perform the checks, but that Data::Dumper does. However, if I understand my own code (unlikely, but I have hope), I'm not calling Win32::OLE repeatedly.. I thought I just had one Data::Dumper call, and it took care of the rest.. thus, if it functioned as you say, wouldn't it find the 'infinite' loop? I suspect I'm not understanding how Data::Dumper works. BTW, above I'm referring to when I just passed $doc straight to Data::Dumper, not when I used the recursive function. Does that make sense?	[reply]
Re^3: How do I obtain a list of values for all the properties of a Word document using Win32::OLE? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 11, 2009 at 19:14 UTC
Win32::OLE objects aren't copies of the foreign objects. If they were copies, you couldn't affect the remote objects. Each Win32::OLE object is an interface to a remote objects. Any fetch from the referenced hash results in a get from the remote object. Any change to the referenced hash results in a set in the remote object. And yes, you are doing repeated fetches. I suspect I'm not understanding how Data::Dumper works. It works much like your code, except it doesn't print anything. The output is placed in a string, which is returned when it's done.	[reply]
Re^4: How do I obtain a list of values for all the properties of a Word document using Win32::OLE? by romandas (Pilgrim) on Jun 11, 2009 at 19:28 UTC
Okay. I can see that now. But.. I'm still at a loss for how to avoid the infinite loop while enumerating all the properties. Any advice?	[reply]
Re^5: How do I obtain a list of values for all the properties of a Word document using Win32::OLE? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 11, 2009 at 20:25 UTC


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