Push from filefind into structure

dpath2o has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a subroutine that chokes on returning what I want. I make the call:

my $tmp = My::Module->new( search_directory => '/some/directory' ,
                                                  archive_directory =>
+ '/some/archive' );
$tmp->My::Module::find_files;
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The core of my module is this:

sub new {

   my($class, %args)                = @_;
   my $self                         = bless( {} , $class );
   my $search_directory             = exists $args{search_directory}  
+? $args{search_directory} : '.';
   $self->{search_directory}        = $search_directory;
   my $archive_directory            = exists $args{archive_directory} 
+? $args{archive_directory} : '';
   $self->{archive_directory}       = $archive_directory;
   my @found_files                  = exists $args{found_files} ? $arg
+s{found_files} : [];
   $self->{found_files}                 = @found_files;

   return $self;
}
sub find_files {

  my $self = shift;

  find( \&FINDFILES , $self->{search_directory} );

  sub FINDFILES { #SITE_TYPE_YY[YY]_MO[_HRMN|_HRMNSC]?.[xx|xxx]       
+                                                                     
+                                                     
    if ($_ =~ m/^(\w{3}|\w{4})[_](\w{4})[_](\d{4}|\d{2})[_](\d{2})[_](
+\d{2})[_]?(\d{2})?(\d{2})?(\d{2})?[.]?(\w{3}|\w{4})?/i) {
      push @{$self->{found_files}}, $File::Find::name;
    }
  }
}
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I expect to return an array of files in $tmp->{found_files} ... but I get the following:

Can't use string ("1") as an ARRAY ref while "strict refs" in use at /opt/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.12.3/My/Module.pm line 94.

Comment on Push from filefind into structure Select or Download Code

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Re: Push from filefind into structure by mbethke (Hermit) on Feb 03, 2012 at 03:46 UTC
The problematic line is this: `$self->{found_files} = @found_files;` `$self->{found_files}` is a scalar and thus provides scalar context to the right side. So @found_files evaluates to the number of its elements, but you'll later treat it like an array reference. Just put a backslash in front of it to take its reference. The array is a copy of the arguments already so saying `... = [ @found_files ];` would do too but do extra needless copying.	[reply] [d/l] [select]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re: Push from filefind into structure
by mbethke (Hermit) on Feb 03, 2012 at 03:46 UTC

The problematic line is this:

$self->{found_files} = @found_files;

$self->{found_files} is a scalar and thus provides scalar context to the right side. So @found_files evaluates to the number of its elements, but you'll later treat it like an array reference. Just put a backslash in front of it to take its reference. The array is a copy of the arguments already so saying ... = [ @found_files ]; would do too but do extra needless copying.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]