NAME

Data::Pointer::HASH - The HASH pointer type

SYNOPSIS

  use Data::Pointer qw(ptr);

  my $var = { qw( a list of words ) };
  my $ptr = ptr( $var );

  print $ptr->plus(1)->deref;           # listofwords
  print scalar $ptr->plus(1)->deref;    # list

  $ptr->deref = "foo";                  # $var->[0] eq 'foo'

DESCRIPTION

The HASH pointer type exists more for completeness than utility. The pointer will be initialised to the first element from a keys call on the hash that it points to. Since it uses Tie::IxHash for accessing the hash the order should stay the same if new elements are added via a $p->deref assignment

METHODS

assign($hash_ref)

Assign the pointer to a different value

p = val

deref

Dereference the pointer or assign to the value it's pointing to

*p
*p = val

incr([$num])

Increments the position of the pointer (default is 1)

p++

decr([$num])

Decrements the position of the pointer (default is 1)

p--

plus($num)

Return a pointer by the given offset

p + 1

minus($num)

Return a pointer by the given offset

p - 1

THANKS

Gurusamy Sarathy for the oh so nice Tie::IxHash

AUTHOR

Dan Brook <broquaint@hotmail.com>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2002, Dan Brook. All Rights Reserved. This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed and/or modified under the same terms as Perl itself.