Avoiding global variables when I need to supply a callback

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

Part of my code needs a list of URLs that are kept in a text message. Thanks to PodMaster I found the right tool for finding the URLs in URI::Find.

There is a small hitch, though: I want a function that returns an array of URLs. The synopsis for using URI::Find is this:

       require URI::Find;

       my $finder = URI::Find->new(\&callback);

       $how_many_found = $finder->find(\$text);
[download]

Now, I could easily use the callback function to store the URLs in a global array variable. But what if I want them in an array that is local to the function calling URI::Find? Is there any way to pass a reference to a target array to the callback function? Any other ideas I could try?

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Re: Avoiding global variables when I need to supply a callback by gaal (Parson) on Jul 22, 2004 at 11:26 UTC
If I understand your problem correctly, what you need is a closure: `{ # in some scope my @array = ( qw(some data) ); my $finder = URI::Find->new(sub { # this callback code sees @array as it was when the closure wa +s created. }); }` [download] Read up on closures in perlsub and perlref.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Avoiding global variables when I need to supply a callback by borisz (Canon) on Jul 22, 2004 at 11:42 UTC
Use a closure. `sub grab_uri{ my @uris; my $finder = URI::Find->new(sub { my($uri, $orig_uri) = @_; push @uris, $uri; $uri }); $finder->find(\$d); \@uris; }` [download] Boris	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Avoiding global variables when I need to supply a callback by beable (Friar) on Jul 22, 2004 at 11:39 UTC
You can use an anonymous subroutine for the callback, which will let you put the URIs you find into an array which isn't global: `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use URI::Find; find_em(); sub find_em { my $text = "http://www.goolge.com/ blah httg://kew.org ftp://127.0 +.0.1/warez"; my @uris = (); my $finder = URI::Find->new(sub{my ($uri, $text) = @_; push @uris, + $uri;}); my $how_many_found = $finder->find(\$text); print("uris are @uris\n"); } __END__` [download]	[reply] [d/l]