More clear dumper debugging lines

This is a trivially simple little formatting trick I use when tossing in lines to dump out during debugging or whatnot.

My thought process tends to go along the lines of, "Hey, I need to check the values of this variable here, so I'll add a print statement...wait, I should print out another one. Wait, I really need to print out this whole complex data structure, I need to dump it."

Nothing special there, just use Data::Dumper and print it out. But I find that marginally annoying since (1) if I later want to shut off that print line and remove the module, I need to add two comments or (2) if I want to delete the statement, I need to remember to delete two lines, lest I end up with useless imports of Data::Dumper.

Solution? Simply toss the use onto the end of your debugging line. Since the use is hit at compile time, you're still importing the module in advance, so it works. Your print line is very clear on the left side of your code (no use in front of it), and then you only have one line to go back and clean up when you get rid of it.




print Dumper($some_complex_structure); use Data::Dumper;
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Re: More clear dumper debugging lines by merlyn (Sage) on Jul 13, 2006 at 14:58 UTC
Solution? Learn about autouse: `use autouse Data::Dumper => qw(Dumper); ... # warn Dumper $complex_structure;` [download] Now you pay the Data::Dumper loading penalty only when you uncomment your debugging statement. Whee. -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: More clear dumper debugging lines by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Jul 16, 2006 at 10:51 UTC
…replaced instead with an autouse penalty. `:)` When I’m annoyed at having to load Data::Dumper, it’s not because of the load time penalty, it’s because of code cleanliness in code that doesn’t actually need the module otherwise. So I’ve been putting my use statements next to the print for a long time, much like the OP suggests. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]
Re: More clear dumper debugging lines by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Jul 16, 2006 at 10:55 UTC
For debugging, also check out Data::Dump and Data::Dump::Streamer, which both produce more readable output than Data::Dumper; as well as Dumpvalue (which few people know about, even though it’s been in core forever). The latter differs from the other modules in that its output is not Perl and cannot be deserialised, but is meant to be more readily human-readable. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]