Tie::Memoize - add data to hash when needed
This package allows a tied hash to autoload its values on the first access, and to use the cached value on the following accesses.
Only read-accesses (via fetching the value or exists
) result in calls to
the functions; the modify-accesses are performed as on a normal hash.
The required arguments during tie
are the hash, the package, and
the reference to the FETCH
ing function. The optional arguments are
an arbitrary scalar $data, the reference to the EXISTS
function,
and initial values of the hash and of the existence cache.
Both the FETCH
ing function and the EXISTS
functions have the
same signature: the arguments are $key, $data
; $data is the same
value as given as argument during tie()ing. Both functions should
return an empty list if the value does not exist. If EXISTS
function is different from the FETCH
ing function, it should return
a TRUE value on success. The FETCH
ing function should return the
intended value if the key is valid.
The structure of the tied() data is an array reference with elements
- 0: cache of known values
- 1: cache of known existence of keys
- 2: FETCH function
- 3: EXISTS function
- 4: $data
The rest is for internal usage of this package. In particular, if TIEHASH is overwritten, it should call SUPER::TIEHASH.
- sub slurp {
- my ($key, $dir) = shift;
- open my $h, '<', "$dir/$key" or return;
- local $/; <$h> # slurp it all
- }
- sub exists { my ($key, $dir) = shift; return -f "$dir/$key" }
- tie %hash, 'Tie::Memoize', \&slurp, $directory, \&exists,
- { fake_file1 => $content1, fake_file2 => $content2 },
- { pretend_does_not_exists => 0, known_to_exist => 1 };
This example treats the slightly modified contents of $directory as a hash. The modifications are that the keys fake_file1 and fake_file2 fetch values $content1 and $content2, and pretend_does_not_exists will never be accessed. Additionally, the existence of known_to_exist is never checked (so if it does not exists when its content is needed, the user of %hash may be confused).
FIRSTKEY and NEXTKEY methods go through the keys which were already read, not all the possible keys of the hash.
Ilya Zakharevich mailto:[email protected].