in reply to Re: Putting file contents into a scalar
in thread Putting file contents into a scalar

You can specify a filehandle as:

my $fh;

The root nodes problem is that he/she tried FILE and then $FILE, which does not work.

*FILE != $FILE

I prefer to use the $ convention, as opposed to the bareword. I think it keeps my code cleaner, as I don't feel the need to double-check for any other "barewords" that might not be what I was expecting.

Just my two cents...

John J Reiser
newrisedesigns.com

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Re: Re^2: (nrd) Putting file contents into a scalar
by joe++ (Friar) on Oct 29, 2002 at 13:47 UTC
    For my own code, I even prefer to use IO::File because that gives me all that neat OO stuff on the file handle. And the additional benefit to be able to test for the type of a scalar which happens to be passed to me, by checking for ref $fh eq 'IO::File'.

    But that's much typing for oneliners...

    Update: As merlyn correctly pointed out:

    "Please don't do that. Your code is fragile. It will break when I pass an object that subclasses IO::File but acts in every way like an IO::File".
    So I went through my latest and greatest module, which grossly offends against this statement, and quietly changed my test to read: 
    ...
croak("Invalid type for 'outfile', missing method print()'")
  unless $outfile->can('print');
...

    [download]
    The immediate benefit is that I now can use IO::Scalar from my test script to get output in a variable instead of a file (or STDOUT). Cool!

    --
    Cheers, Joe

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      And the additional benefit to be able to test for the type of a scalar which happens to be passed to me, by checking for ref $fh eq 'IO::File'.
      Please don't do that. Your code is fragile. It will break when I pass an object that subclasses IO::File but acts in every way like an IO::File.

      Instead, write your code so that the class doesn't matter. Use the polymorphism as it was intended. If you are unsure if $object_x can handle a particular method call, then use UNIVERSAL::can against it, or put it in an eval block to trap the potential error.

      The use of ref in ordinary code should be limited to determining whether something is a reference or not (such as whether the first parameter for a method call is a class or instance). Any explicit comparison will break subclassing. Too much "navel contemplation" is a bad thing in robust code.

      -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
      Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

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        or use UNIVERSAL::isa() which will most easily accomplish what merlyn is talking about.

        [TINPC@perlcabal.com shh]$ su real
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