Well, that is because in your object you now have a package, and what once worked in your main code, is now bundled away in FOO::...

I would suggest something along the following.. 

package FOO;
sub first {
  print "This is first\n";
}
sub second {
  print "This is second\n";
}
sub dispatch {
  my $self = shift;
  no strict 'refs';
  my $command = shift;
  print "In dispatch, command = $command\n";
  &{$self->{dispatch}{$command}}();

}

sub new {
  my $class = shift;
  my $self = {};
  bless $self, $class;
  $self->{dispatch} = { 'a'=> $self->can('first'), 'b'=> $self->can('s
+econd') };
  return $self;
}

package ::;
my $foo = new FOO();
$foo->dispatch('a');
$foo->dispatch('b');

[download]
I took references to the methods using can (since I cannot think off the top of my head how to do it otherwise...). It is MUCH better to use code refs than do symbol table lookups on strings... but to do a successful symbol table lookup you would do 
$self->$command();

[download]
I also move the definition of your dispatch table into the new method, since you should only have to generate this once....

                - Ant
                - Some of my best work - Fish Dinner

In reply to Re: Dispatching Method Objects by suaveant
in thread Dispatching Method Objects by ehdonhon

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.