>>>>> "SB" == Steve Bertrand <st...@ibctech.ca> writes:
SB> I make these hashes available globally, initially as undef. I have a there is no such thing as an undef hash. it is either empty or not. undef is a single value and hashes are always in pairs. never do undef %hash or even worse %hash = undef (the latter will trigger a warning). one big reason to never undef a hash is that it leads to using defined on hashes which is totally wrong. defined will be true if the hash (even when empty) if it ever had any keys in it. SB> reset() function that defines and populates the data types (all hashes) SB> to a default state with default values. This reset function is called SB> whenever a change is made to the data between tests. the best way to handle this is to declare the hashes in a proper scope (say a sub) and pass refs to them to the test code. then when you call the sub you will always get clean hashes. same is true if you just pass empty hash refs to the test code. global hashes (globals in general) are bugs waiting to happen unless you are very careful. SB> Instead of copy/pasting each test for all of the known types, I'd SB> like to iterate through a list of known type names, and then map SB> the name of the type to the hash with the same name. I think what SB> I want is a symbolic ref, but I can't quite figure out how to map SB> the hash to the name. you want a hash of hashes. never use symrefs if you don't have to. the rule is symrefs are for munging the symbol table, not for general purpose data structures. the symbol table is just a specialized hash tree anyway so it offers NO advantages over a regular hash tree but it allows for all sorts of nasty hard to find bugs. uri -- Uri Guttman ------ u...@stemsystems.com -------- http://www.sysarch.com -- ----- Perl Code Review , Architecture, Development, Training, Support ------ --------- Free Perl Training --- http://perlhunter.com/college.html --------- --------- Gourmet Hot Cocoa Mix ---- http://bestfriendscocoa.com --------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: beginners-unsubscr...@perl.org For additional commands, e-mail: beginners-h...@perl.org http://learn.perl.org/
