Corrupted Object memory addresses

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

I've just encountered a problem that has me absolutely flummoxed - I have some code that uses operator overloading to produce nested sets of objects, and on a smalll scale it works fine:

$logic =  ($cA & $cB & $cC & $cD);
say '$cA & $cB & $cC & $cD is :', $logic->as_string;
 >>> ((A and B and C and D or E) or F)
[download]

but if I try any more than 7 elements I get bizarre corrupted memory addresses in the objects: here are some examples:

Can't locate object method "as_string" via package "InterMine::PathQue
+ry::ConstraintSet=HASH(0x87yt738)"
[download]

and InterMine::PathQuery::ConstraintSet=HASH(0x8737;=8) and InterMine::PathQuery::ConstraintSet=HASH(0x8ae23s0) and InterMine::PathQuery::ConstraintSet=HASH(0x8uu6sw8) you can see the code for the offending module here: http://pastebin.com/QN2sZN5G and the associated code here: http://pastebin.com/XwxDxJJH I have never seen anything like this before - any ideas out there from the Monks? Alex

Comment on Corrupted Object memory addresses Select or Download Code

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Re: Corrupted Object memory addresses by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 21, 2010 at 17:33 UTC
As explained in the CB, the memory address wasn't corrupted, the reference was. It was replaced with a string, and modifications were made to that string. This surely occurred because of a missing dereference. Looking at the code you provided, I see `$logic = ($cA & $cB & $cC & $cD);` [download] `$logic` is assigned a string or a number (depending on the values of `$cA`, `$cB`, `$cC` and `$cD`), but then you do `$logic->as_string` [download] Needless to say, the random string or number you created is not an object, and the call fails. Judging by the value that does end up in `$logic`, you've got a second problem. `$cA`, `$cB`, `$cC` or `$cD` contains a object reference, but you're treating it as a bit string. This is what's corrupting the reference.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Corrupted Object memory addresses by alexkalderimis (Initiate) on Jun 21, 2010 at 17:44 UTC
Thanks for the comments - they certainly led me to the answer: I had already overloaded the & and \| operators in one package, but I needed to do this to another as well. Thanks for your help.	[reply]