Re^2: Best practices and any way to have Perl Tidy clean it up

Thank you! That's pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I actually use the -pbp (perl best practices) flag with Perl Tidy, which sets 78-column lines for my scripts, but does not touch object params for some reason. So, 99% of my script is shortened down to 78-column lines, then I have these stragglers, these long lines that are object params. Guess I will have to do it manually (no big deal) to fit within the suggestions given above. The -pbp flag I believe sets all options to that which you find in the perltidyrc file provided by the Perl Best Practices book. Seems a little known option (it's not even in --help output), but something worthwhile knowing. Again, thank you for your excellent response.

Comment on Re^2: Best practices and any way to have Perl Tidy clean it up

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^3: Best practices and any way to have Perl Tidy clean it up by kcott (Archbishop) on Apr 15, 2013 at 11:25 UTC
A string (e.g. `"a string"`) is a constant. You can't modify it directly in code. You may well have a very good reason for positioning characters within the string. It would inappropriate for perltidy (or other similar software) to modify a constant you've coded. Even without strict and warnings, attempting to modify a constant value is a fatal error: `$ perl -e '"abc" =~ s/c$//' Can't modify constant item in substitution (s///) at -e line 1, at EOF Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.` [download] Ditto for numbers: `$ perl -e '2++' Can't modify constant item in postincrement (++) at -e line 1, near "2 +++" Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.` [download] Chapter 2 of PBP is devoted to Code Layout. While the focus is obviously on laying out Perl code, many of the suggestions would apply equally to other languages: this might provide a few hints for your SQL. -- Ken	[reply] [d/l] [select]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re^3: Best practices and any way to have Perl Tidy clean it up
by kcott (Archbishop) on Apr 15, 2013 at 11:25 UTC

A string (e.g. "a string") is a constant. You can't modify it directly in code. You may well have a very good reason for positioning characters within the string. It would inappropriate for perltidy (or other similar software) to modify a constant you've coded. Even without strict and warnings, attempting to modify a constant value is a fatal error:

$ perl -e '"abc" =~ s/c$//'
Can't modify constant item in substitution (s///) at -e line 1, at EOF
Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.
[download]

Ditto for numbers:

$ perl -e '2++'
Can't modify constant item in postincrement (++) at -e line 1, near "2
+++"
Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.
[download]

Chapter 2 of PBP is devoted to Code Layout. While the focus is obviously on laying out Perl code, many of the suggestions would apply equally to other languages: this might provide a few hints for your SQL.

-- Ken

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]