NAME

Sub::ArgShortcut - simplify writing functions that use default arguments

SYNOPSIS

use Sub::ArgShortcut::Attr;

sub mychomp : ArgShortcut { chomp @_ }

while ( <> ) {
    # make a chomped copy of $_ without modifying it
    my $chomped_line = mychomp;

    # or, modify $_ in place
    mychomp;

    # ...
}

DESCRIPTION

This module encapsulates the logic required for functions that assume $_ as their argument when called with an empty argument list, and which modify their arguments in void context but return modified copies in any other context. You only need to write code which modifies the elements of @_ in-place.

INTERFACE

argshortcut(&)

This function takes a code reference as input, wraps a function around it and returns a reference to that function. The code that is passed in should modify the values in @_ in whatever fashion desired. The function from the synopsis could therefore also be written like this:

use Sub::ArgShortcut;
my $mychomp = argshortcut { chomp @_ };

:ArgShortcut

Instead of using argshortcut to wrap a code reference, you can write regular subs and then add Sub::ArgShortcut functionality to them implicitly. Simply use Sub::Shortcut::Attr instead of Sub::Shortcut, then request its behaviour using the :ArgShortcut attribute on functions:

sub mychomp : ArgShortcut { chomp @_ }

my $mychomp = sub : ArgShortcut { chomp @_ };

EXPORTS

Sub::ArgShortcut exports argshortcut by default.

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

Passing an empty array to a shortcutting function will probably surprise you: assuming foo is a function with :ArgShortcut and @bar is an empty array, then calling foo( @bar ) will cause foo to operate on $_! This is because foo has no way of distinguishing whether it was called without any arguments or called with arguments that evaluate to an empty list.