perl5ever has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

With Data::Dumper there doesn't seem to be a way to configure a Dumper object and then use it dump multiple objects. For instance, I'd like to use it this way: 
use Data::Dumper;

my $d = new Data::Dumper();
$d->Terse(0)->Purity(1)->Deepcopy(1)->Indent(0);
...

print $d->Dump($this);
...
print $d->Dump($that);
...
print $d->Dump($otherthing);
...

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It seems that the thing to dump is part of the constructor, so you are forced to create a new Dumper object (and configure it) every time you want to dump a different object.

Or am I missing something?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Data::Dumper question
by Anonymous Monk on Apr 01, 2009 at 03:59 UTC
    No, Data::Dumper is clever like that :) 
    sub Dump {
  require Data::Dumper;
  local $Data::Dumper::Terse=0;
  local $Data::Dumper::Purity=1;
  local $Data::Dumper::Deepcopy=1;
  local $Data::Dumper::Indent=0;
  Data::Dumper::Dumper(@_);
}
print Dump( $this);
print Dump( $that);
print Dump( $otherthing);

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Re: Data::Dumper question
by haoess (Curate) on Apr 01, 2009 at 09:54 UTC
    RTFM?
    $OBJ->Values([ARRAYREF])

    Queries or replaces the internal array of values that will be dumped. When called without arguments, returns the values. Otherwise, returns the object itself.

    Update (example code):

    print $d->Values([$this])->Dump();
print $d->Values([$that])->Dump();
print $d->Values([$otherthing])->Dump();

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    -- Frank

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      I guess I did overlook that. Thanks! For convenience it would be nice, though, if that capability was integrated into the Dump method.
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      I guess I did overlook that. Thanks!
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      Here's another problem -- when you set the thing to be dumped via Values(), the Dumper object retains a reference to the thing to be dumped.

      It would be a lot nicer if it would just hold on to the dumpee only for the duration of the Dump call.

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Re: Data::Dumper question
by Bloodnok (Vicar) on Apr 01, 2009 at 10:02 UTC
    I have to admit to, even in OO code, never using the OO interface to Data::Dumper - I use something along the lines of... 
    use Data::Dumper;
.
.
print Dumper $some_ref; # Dump single structure
.
.
# Dump multi structures - providing non-default names for each
print Data::Dumper->Dump [$ref1, $ref2],[qw/ref1 ref2/];

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    A user level that continues to overstate my experience :-))
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Re: Data::Dumper question
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Apr 01, 2009 at 07:24 UTC
    It does indeed have a weird interface.
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