Re^5: Adding attributes to values?

In that case you might simply pass all named args inside a hash_ref and all positional args inside an array reference. Downside of all this is of course an extreme amount of diffrently shaped brackets getting used ...

sub get_args {
    if (scalar(@_) == 1) {
        if (ref($_[0]) eq 'HASH') {
            return "got named args!\n";
        } elsif (ref($_[0]) eq 'ARRAY') {
            return "got positional args\n";
        } else {
            die "argument wasn't a hash or array reference!\n";
        }
    } else {
        die "got more than one arg!\n";
    }
}

sub named_or_positional {
    print get_args(@_);
}
named_or_positional({foo => 'avalue' , bar => ['a', 'b']});
named_or_positional(['whatever' , 'we', 'are', 'passing']);
named_or_positional('whatever' , 'we', 'are', 'passing');
[download]

Then you would have to check whether there is a single hash_ref or a single array_ref for determining whether it's positional or named. Any other case than a single hash or array ref would have to be considered a error.

If you don't mind the additional overhead of square/curled brackets, then it would allow you simple differentiation of named an positional args.

Comment on Re^5: Adding attributes to values? Download Code

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Re^6: Adding attributes to values? by oyse (Monk) on Oct 21, 2007 at 11:15 UTC
That was a good idea. Thanks! I think that the syntactical overhead would be acceptable, I just have to put some more thought into it to see if there is anything I am missing. Update: After giving it a bit more thought I think I will try a different approach. The extra square brackets does not conform with how people expect argument passing to be performed in Perl and some might therefore find it confusing. I will instead try an approach where the named arguments has must contain a special key marking it as an named arguments hash. Like this: `my_func( { key => 'value', ..... $NAMED_ARGS => '' } );` [download] I think that might be a better solution since people can pass parameters just like they normally would, but get the option of passing them by name if they are inclinded to do so.	[reply] [d/l]

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Re^6: Adding attributes to values?
by oyse (Monk) on Oct 21, 2007 at 11:15 UTC

That was a good idea. Thanks!

I think that the syntactical overhead would be acceptable, I just have to put some more thought into it to see if there is anything I am missing.

Update: After giving it a bit more thought I think I will try a different approach. The extra square brackets does not conform with how people expect argument passing to be performed in Perl and some might therefore find it confusing. I will instead try an approach where the named arguments has must contain a special key marking it as an named arguments hash. Like this:

my_func( { key => 'value', ..... $NAMED_ARGS => '' } );
[download]

I think that might be a better solution since people can pass parameters just like they normally would, but get the option of passing them by name if they are inclinded to do so.

[reply]
[d/l]