On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 6:07 PM, eventual <eventualde...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> use Data::Dumper;
>
> Hi,
> Can someone give me a few examples on the purpose of use Data::Dumper;
> I tried reading but I could not understand.
> Thanks


use Data::Dumper;

simply tells perl to load the Data::Dumper module. You can then use the
module to well dump data. :-)

Try the following, create a complex data structure something like this:

use Data::Dumper;
my $complex = [ { 'value1' => 'key1', 'value2' => [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ] },
'Array value 2', '03', [ 'String 1', 'String 2', 'String 3' ], ];
print Dumper $complex;

and you will see something like this:
$VAR1 = [
          {
            'value1' => 'key1',
            'value2' => [
                          1,
                          2,
                          3,
                          4,
                          5
                        ]
          },
          'Array value 2',
          '03',
          [
            'String 1',
            'String 2',
            'String 3'
          ]
        ];

Now it might seem silly at first but if you are dealing with large and
complex data structures that have a mix of arrays, hashs, strings,
references to data structures etc.. then you will soon come to love the
Data::Dumper for its very helpful output.

If you are not sure about loading external modules in perl please have a
look at: http://perl-begin.org/tutorials/perl-for-newbies/part3/ which will
give you a good beginner guide to what modules are and what they are used
for etc.

Regards,

Rob

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