nmerriweather has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

in the current perl, is it possible to overload arrays or create some sort of class wrapper for arrays ?

i have a module that returns an array. i'd like that array to be blessed into some sort of class that i can call methods on.

python has this, but i've never seen anything like it in perl - so i'm assuming its not possible. just wanted to check.

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Re: overload arrays ?
by eric256 (Parson) on Feb 08, 2007 at 23:59 UTC

    If an array ref was suitable you could always bless it, then it would be an array AND an object you could call methods on.

    use strict;
use warnings;
{
package Array;
sub new {
    shift @_;
    my $self = [@_];
    bless($self);
    return $self;
}

sub joinem {
    my $self = shift;
    return join("-", @$self);
}
}

my $test = new Array(1,2,3);
print @$test, "\n";
print $test->joinem(), "\n";

__END__
C:\Perl\test>perl array_obj.pl
123
1-2-3

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    ___________
    Eric Hodges
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[d/l]
Re: overload arrays ?
by Limbic~Region (Chancellor) on Feb 08, 2007 at 23:31 UTC
    nmerriweather,
    I think what you are looking for is perltie. It allows you to create an object that you can treat just like a native data type but you can also call methods on using tied.

    Cheers - L~R

[reply]
Re: overload arrays ?
by diotalevi (Canon) on Feb 09, 2007 at 00:07 UTC

    There is also autobox.

    ⠤⠤ ⠙⠊⠕⠞⠁⠇⠑⠧⠊

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