I read somewhere that it's sensible to define search methods as class methods - put them inside the class definition of the objects they return. eg if I have a class called 'File', then as well has having 'File->new' return an object , I can have 'File->search' return an array of objects. This is supposed to be better than creating an object especially for searching.

(I can't remember exactly why this is meant to be good, nor where I read it - maybe there are exceptions?)

If I do do it this way, how do I pass the necessary information to another class about where it should search? I could just pass the class name, like so: 
my $ui = UI->new;
$ui->query_dialog( { search_with => 'DB::File' } );

package UI;
sub query_dialog {
    my( $self, $args ) =@_;
    print "Name? ";
    my $name = <STDIN>;
    my $search_class = $args->{search_with};
    my @files = $search_class->search( { name => $name } );
    ...
}

[download]
but this would require my 'UI' package to 'use' or 'require' the class, which seems messy.

How, if I want to keep my search object and my UI object totally ignorant of each others class, should I pass the search object?


- Boldra

In reply to search methods as class methods? by Boldra

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