NAME

Paranoid::Data - Misc. Data Manipulation Functions

VERSION

$Id: lib/Paranoid/Data.pm, 2.08 2020/12/31 12:10:06 acorliss Exp $

SYNOPSIS

    $rv = deepCopy($source, $target);
    $rv = deepCopy(@source, @target);
    $rv = deepCopy(%source, %target);

    $rv = deepCmp($source, $target);
    $rv = deepCmp(@source, @target);
    $rv = deepCmp(%source, %target);

DESCRIPTION

This module provides data manipulation functions, which at this time only consists of deepCopy and deepCmp.

IMPORT LISTS

This module exports the following symbols by default:

    deepCopy deepCmp

The following specialized import lists also exist:

    List        Members
    --------------------------------------------------------
    all         @defaults

SUBROUTINES/METHODS

deepCopy

    $rv = deepCopy($source, $target);
    $rv = deepCopy(@source, @target);
    $rv = deepCopy(%source, %target);

This function performs a deep and safe copy of arbitrary data structures, checking for circular references along the way. Hashes and lists are safely duplicated while all other data types are just copied. This means that any embedded object references, etc., are identical in both the source and the target, which is probably not what you want.

In short, this should only be used on pure hash/list/scalar value data structures. Both the source and the target data types must be of an identical type.

This function returns the number of elements copied unless it runs into a problem (such as a circular reference), in which case it returns a zero.

deepCmp

    $rv = deepCmp($source, $target);
    $rv = deepCmp(@source, @target);
    $rv = deepCmp(%source, %target);

This function performs a deep comparison of arbitrarily complex data structures (i.e., hashes of lists of lists of scalars, etc.). It returns true if the values of the structures are identical, false otherwise. Like the deepCopy function there are no provisions for evaluating objects beyond what their values are when coerced as scalar types.

End sum, the same caveats that applied to deepCopy apply here.

DEPENDENCIES

o: Carp
o: Paranoid
o: Paranoid::Debug

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

AUTHOR

Arthur Corliss (corliss@digitalmages.com)

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

This software is free software. Similar to Perl, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either:

  a)     the GNU General Public License
         <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-1.0.html> as published by the 
         Free Software Foundation <http://www.fsf.org/>; either version 1
         <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-1.0.html>, or any later version
         <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GNUGPL>, or
  b)     the Artistic License 2.0
         <https://opensource.org/licenses/Artistic-2.0>,

subject to the following additional term: No trademark rights to "Paranoid" have been or are conveyed under any of the above licenses. However, "Paranoid" may be used fairly to describe this unmodified software, in good faith, but not as a trademark.