With the loop_context_vars switch in HTML::Template you can make some useful macros. I found myself needing things like this all too often: 
$tmpl->param(
  foos     => \@foo,
  num_foos => scalar @foo,
  bars     => \@bar,
  num_bars => scalar @bar,
  ...
);

[download]
So I made a macro that handles this inside the template by adding a <TMPL_NUM foo> directive. Does anyone else have useful HTML::Template tricks up their sleeves?

By the way, I'm well aware that this is a great example of the serious limits of templating using HTML::Template's philosophy. This is some ugly template-ese under the hood. This is why I will probably switch over to Template::Toolkit in the not-so-distant future (at least for projects where I'm the one writing the template).

use HTML::Template;

sub tmpl_num_filter {
    s[<TMPL_NUM (\w+)>]
     [<TMPL_IF $1><TMPL_LOOP $1><TMPL_IF __LAST__><TMPL_VAR __COUNTER_
+_></TMPL_IF></TMPL_LOOP><TMPL_ELSE>0</TMPL_IF>]g
        for ${+shift};
}

my $tmpl = HTML::Template->new(
               scalarref         => \do { local $/; <DATA> },
               filter            => \&tmpl_num_filter,
               die_on_bad_params => 0,
               loop_context_vars => 1
           );

$tmpl->param(hobbits => [
    { name => "Frodo" },
    { name => "Samwise" },
    { name => "Meriadoc" }
]);
print $tmpl->output;

__DATA__
These are my <TMPL_NUM hobbits> favorite hobbits:
<ul><TMPL_LOOP hobbits>
  <li><TMPL_VAR name>
</TMPL_LOOP></ul>

[download]

In reply to HTML::Template macros by blokhead

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