Class::MakeMethods::Utility::Ref - Deep copying and comparison

NAME

Class::MakeMethods::Utility::Ref - Deep copying and comparison

SYNOPSIS

  use Class::MakeMethods::Utility::Ref qw( ref_clone ref_compare );
  
  $deep_copy = ref_clone( $original );
  $positive_zero_or_negative = ref_compare( $item_a, $item_b );

DESCRIPTION

This module provides utility functions to copy and compare arbitrary references, including full traversal of nested data structures.

REFERENCE

The following functions are provided:

ref_clone()

Make a recursive copy of a reference.

ref_compare()

Attempt to recursively compare two references.

If they are not the same, try to be consistent about returning a positive or negative number so that it can be used for sorting. The sort order is kinda arbitrary.

SEE ALSO

See the Class::MakeMethods manpage for general information about this distribution.

See the Ref manpage for the original version of the clone and compare functions used above.

See Clone (v0.09 on CPAN as of 2000-09-21) for a clone method with an XS implementation.

The Perl6 RFP #67 proposes including clone functionality in the core.

See the Data::Compare manpage (v0.01 on CPAN as of 1999-04-24) for a Compare method which checks two references for similarity, but it does not provide positive/negative values for ordering purposes.

 Class::MakeMethods::Utility::Ref - Deep copying and comparison