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 Class::MakeMethods for general information about this distribution.

See Ref 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 Data::Compare (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.