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//usr/share/doc/perl-Template-Toolkit-2.22/manual/VMethods.html
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Strict//EN"> <html> <head> <title>Template::Manual::VMethods</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/blue.css" title="Clear Blue"> <link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/orange.css" title="Clear Orange"> <link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/green.css" title="Clear Green"> <link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/purple.css" title="Clear Purple"> <link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/grey.css" title="Clear Grey"> <link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/print.css" title="Print"> <!--[if IE 6]> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/ie6.css" /> <![endif]--> <!--[if IE 7]> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/ie7.css" /> <![endif]--> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/print.css" media="print"> <script type="text/javascript" src="../js/tt2.js"></script> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8"> <meta name="author" content="Andy Wardley"> </head> <body id="body"> <div id="layout"> <div id="header"> <a href="../index.html" id="logo" alt="" title="Click for the Home Page"><span class="alt">TT2 Home Page</span></a> <ul id="trail"> <li><a href="../manual/index.html">Manual</a></li> <li class="last"><a href="../manual/VMethods.html">VMethods</a></li> </ul> <div class="controls"> <a href="#" class="menu show" onclick="widescreen_off(); return false" title="Show Menu"> <span class="about">Click to view the menu. It's very nice.</span> </a> <a href="#" class="menu hide" onclick="widescreen_on(); return false" title="Hide Menu"> <span class="about">Click to hide the menu and go all widescreen!</span> </a> <div class="pager"> <a href="../manual/Variables.html" title="Template::Manual::Variables" class="go back">Back<span class="about"><h4>Template::Manual::Variables</h4>Template variables and code bindings</span></a> <a href="../manual/index.html" title="Template::Manual" class="go up">Up<span class="about"><h4>Template::Manual</h4>Template Toolkit User Manual</span></a> <a href="../manual/Config.html" title="Template::Manual::Config" class="go next">Next<span class="about"><h4>Template::Manual::Config</h4>Configuration options</span></a> </div> </div> <h1 class="headline">Template::Manual::VMethods</h1> <h2 class="subhead">Virtual Methods</h1> </div> <div id="page"> <div id="sidebar"> <a href="../index.html" id="logo"></a> <div id="menu"> <ul class="menu"> <li class="l0 first"><a 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last"><a href="../faq/index.html">FAQ</a></li> </ul> <div class="foot"></div> </div> </div> <div id="content"> <div class="section"> <div class="head"> <h1 id="contents" onclick="switch_section(this)" title="Click title to show/hide section content.">Contents</h1> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <ul class="toc"> <li class=""><a href="#Scalar_Virtual_Methods">Scalar Virtual Methods</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_defined">defined</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_length">length</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#method_repeat">repeat(n)</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#method_replace">replace(search, replace)</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#method_remove">remove(pattern)</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#method_match">match(pattern, global)</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#method_search">search(pattern)</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#method_split">split(pattern)</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#method_chunk">chunk(size)</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#method_substr">substr(offset, length, replacement)</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_list">list</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_hash_">hash </a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_size">size</a></li> <li class=""><a href="#Hash_Virtual_Methods">Hash Virtual Methods</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_keys">keys</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_values">values</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_items">items</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_each">each</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_pairs_">pairs </a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_list">list</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_sort_nsort">sort, nsort</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_import">import</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_defined_exists">defined, exists</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_delete_">delete </a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_size">size</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_item">item</a></li> <li class=""><a href="#List_Virtual_Methods">List Virtual Methods</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_first_last">first, last</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_size_max">size, max</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_defined">defined</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_reverse">reverse</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_join">join</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_grep">grep</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_sort_nsort">sort, nsort</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#method_unshift_item_push">unshift(item), push(item)</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_shift_pop">shift, pop</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_unique">unique</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_import">import</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_merge">merge</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#method_slice">slice(from, to)</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#method_splice">splice(offset, length, list)</a></li> <li class="sub"><a href="#section_hash_">hash </a></li> <li class=""><a href="#Automagic_Promotion_of_Scalar_to_List_for_Virtual_Methods">Automagic Promotion of Scalar to List for Virtual Methods</a></li> <li class=""><a href="#Defining_Custom_Virtual_Methods">Defining Custom Virtual Methods</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="pod"> <div class="section"> <div class="head"> <h1 id="Scalar_Virtual_Methods" onclick="switch_section(this)" title="Click title to show/hide section content.">Scalar Virtual Methods</h1> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_defined" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">defined</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns true if the value is defined. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% user = get_user(uid) IF uid.defined %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_length" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">length</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns the length of the string representation of the item: </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% IF password.length < 8 %]</span> Password too short, dumbass! <span class="tt">[% END %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="method_repeat" class="method" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">repeat(n)</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Repeat the string a specified number of times. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% name = 'foo' %]</span> <span class="tt">[% name.repeat(3) %]</span> # foofoofoo</pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="method_replace" class="method" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">replace(search, replace)</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Outputs the string with all instances of the first argument (specified as a Perl regular expression) with the second. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% name = 'foo, bar & baz' %]</span> <span class="tt">[% name.replace('\W+', '_') %]</span> # foo_bar_baz</pre> <p> You can use <code>$1</code>, <code>$2</code>, etc., to reference captured parts (in parentheses) in the regular expression. Just be careful to <i>single</i> quote the replacement string. If you use <i>double</i> quotes then TT will try and interpolate the variables before passing the string to the <code>replace</code> vmethod. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% name = 'FooBarBaz' %]</span> <span class="tt">[% name.replace('([A-Z])', ' $1') %]</span> # Foo Bar Baz</pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="method_remove" class="method" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">remove(pattern)</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Outputs the string with all instances of the pattern (specified as a Perl regular expression) removed. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% name = 'foo, bar & baz' %]</span> <span class="tt">[% name.remove('\W+') %]</span> # foobarbaz</pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="method_match" class="method" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">match(pattern, global)</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Performs a regular expression match on the string using the pattern passed as an argument. If the pattern matches the string then the method returns a reference to a list of any strings captured within parenthesis in the pattern. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% name = 'Larry Wall' %]</span> <span class="tt">[% matches = name.match('(\w+) (\w+)') %]</span> <span class="tt">[% matches.1 %]</span>, <span class="tt">[% matches.0 %]</span> # Wall, Larry</pre> <p> If the pattern does not match then the method returns false, rather than returning an empty list which Perl and the Template Toolkit both consider to be a true value. This allows you to write expression like this. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% "We're not worthy!" IF name.match('Larry Wall') %]</span></pre> <pre><span class="tt">[% IF (matches = name.match('(\w+) (\w+)')) %]</span> pattern matches: <span class="tt">[% matches.join(', ') %]</span> <span class="tt">[% ELSE %]</span> pattern does not match <span class="tt">[% END %]</span></pre> <p> Any regex modifiers, like <code>/s</code>, should be added in the regex using the <code>(?s)</code> syntax. For example, to modify the regex to disregard whitespace (the <code>/x</code> switch), use: </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% re = '(?x) (\w+) [ ] (\w+) '; matches = name.match(re); %]</span></pre> <p> To perform a global search to match the pattern as many times as it appears in the source string, provide a true value for the <code>global</code> argument following the pattern. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% text = 'bandanna'; text.match('an+', 1).join(', ) # an, ann %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="method_search" class="method" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">search(pattern)</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Performs a similar function to <a href="#section_match">match</a> but simply returns true if the string matches the regular expression pattern passed as an argument. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% name = 'foo bar baz' %]</span> <span class="tt">[% name.search('bar') ? 'bar' : 'no bar' %]</span> # bar</pre> <p> This virtual method is now deprecated in favour of <a href="#section_match">match</a>. Move along now, there's nothing more to see here. </p> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="method_split" class="method" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">split(pattern)</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Calls Perl's <code>split()</code> function to split a string into a list of strings. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% FOREACH dir IN mypath.split(':') %]</span> <span class="tt">[% dir %]</span> <span class="tt">[% END %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="method_chunk" class="method" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">chunk(size)</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Splits the value into a list of chunks of a certain size. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% ccard_no = "1234567824683579"; ccard_no.chunk(4).join %]</span></pre> <p> Output: </p> <pre>1234 5678 2468 3579</pre> <p> If the size is specified as a negative number then the text will be chunked from right-to-left. This gives the correct grouping for numbers, for example. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% number = 1234567; number.chunk(-3).join(',') %]</span></pre> <p> Output: </p> <pre>1,234,567</pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="method_substr" class="method" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">substr(offset, length, replacement)</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns a substring starting at <code>offset</code>, for <code>length</code> characters. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% str 'foo bar baz wiz waz woz') %]</span> <span class="tt">[% str.substr(4, 3) %]</span> # bar</pre> <p> If <code>length</code> is not specified then it returns everything from the <code>offset</code> to the end of the string. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% str.substr(12) %]</span> # wiz waz woz</pre> <p> If both <code>length</code> and <code>replacement</code> are specified, then the method replaces everything from <code>offset</code> for <code>length</code> characters with <code>$replacement</code>. The substring removed from the string is then returned. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% str.substr(0, 11, 'FOO') %]</span> # foo bar baz <span class="tt">[% str %]</span> # FOO wiz waz woz</pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_list" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">list</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Return the value as a single element list. This can be useful if you have a variable which may contain a single item or a list and you want to treat them equally. The <code>list</code> method can be called against a list reference and will simply return the original reference, effectively a no-op. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% thing.list.size %]</span> # thing can be a scalar or a list</pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_hash_" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">hash </h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Return the value as a hash reference containing a single entry with the key <code>value</code> indicating the original scalar value. As with the <code>list</code> virtual method, this is generally used to help massage data into different formats. </p> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_size" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">size</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Always returns 1 for scalar values. This method is provided for consistency with the hash and list size methods. </p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="section"> <div class="head"> <h1 id="Hash_Virtual_Methods" onclick="switch_section(this)" title="Click title to show/hide section content.">Hash Virtual Methods</h1> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_keys" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">keys</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns a list of keys in the hash. They are not returned in any particular order, but the order is the same as for the corresponding values method. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% FOREACH key IN hash.keys %]</span> * <span class="tt">[% key %]</span> <span class="tt">[% END %]</span></pre> <p> If you want the keys in sorted order, use the list <code>sort</code> method. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% FOREACH key IN hash.keys.sort %]</span> * <span class="tt">[% key %]</span> <span class="tt">[% END %]</span></pre> <p> Having got the keys in sorted order, you can then use variable interpolation to fetch the value. This is shown in the following example by the use of <code>$key</code> to fetch the item from <code>hash</code> whose key is stored in the <code>key</code> variable. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% FOREACH key IN hash.keys.sort %]</span> * <span class="tt">[% key %]</span> = <span class="tt">[% hash.$key %]</span> <span class="tt">[% END %]</span></pre> <p> Alternately, you can use the <code>pairs</code> method to get a list of key/value pairs in sorted order. </p> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_values" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">values</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns a list of the values in the hash. As with the <code>keys</code> method, they are not returned in any particular order, although it is the same order that the keys are returned in. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% hash.values.join(', ') %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_items" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">items</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns a list of both the keys and the values expanded into a single list. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% hash = { a = 10 b = 20 }; hash.items.join(', ') # a, 10, b, 20 %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_each" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">each</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> This method currently returns the same thing as the <code>items</code> method. </p> <p> However, please note that this method will change in the next major version of the Template Toolkit (v3) to return the same thing as the <code>pairs</code> method. This will be done in an effort to make these virtual method more consistent with each other and how Perl works. </p> <p> In anticipation of this, we recommend that you stop using <code>hash.each</code> and instead use <code>hash.items</code>. </p> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_pairs_" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">pairs </h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> This method returns a list of key/value pairs. They are returned in sorted order according to the keys. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% FOREACH pair IN product.pairs %]</span> * <span class="tt">[% pair.key %]</span> is <span class="tt">[% pair.value %]</span> <span class="tt">[% END %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_list" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">list</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns the contents of the hash in list form. An argument can be passed to indicate the desired items required in the list: <code>keys</code> to return a list of the keys (same as <code>hash.keys</code>), <code>values</code> to return a list of the values (same as <code>hash.values</code>), <code>each</code> to return as list of key and values (same as <code>hash.each</code>), or <code>pairs</code> to return a list of key/value pairs (same as <code>hash.pairs</code>). </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% keys = hash.list('keys') %]</span> <span class="tt">[% values = hash.list('values') %]</span> <span class="tt">[% items = hash.list('each') %]</span> <span class="tt">[% pairs = hash.list('pairs') %]</span></pre> <p> When called without an argument it currently returns the same thing as the <code>pairs</code> method. However, please note that this method will change in the next major version of the Template Toolkit (v3) to return a reference to a list containing the single hash reference (as per the scalar list method). </p> <p> In anticipation of this, we recommend that you stop using <code>hash.list</code> and instead use <code>hash.pairs</code>. </p> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_sort_nsort" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">sort, nsort</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Return a list of the keys, sorted alphabetically (<code>sort</code>) or numerically (<code>nsort</code>) according to the corresponding values in the hash. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% FOREACH n IN phones.sort %]</span> <span class="tt">[% phones.$n %]</span> is <span class="tt">[% n %]</span>, <span class="tt">[% END %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_import" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">import</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> The <code>import</code> method can be called on a hash array to import the contents of another hash array. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% hash1 = { foo = 'Foo' bar = 'Bar' } hash2 = { wiz = 'Wiz' woz = 'Woz' } %]</span> <span class="tt">[% hash1.import(hash2) %]</span> <span class="tt">[% hash1.wiz %]</span> # Wiz</pre> <p> You can also call the <code>import()</code> method by itself to import a hash array into the current namespace hash. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% user = { id => 'lwall', name => 'Larry Wall' } %]</span> <span class="tt">[% import(user) %]</span> <span class="tt">[% id %]</span>: <span class="tt">[% name %]</span> # lwall: Larry Wall</pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_defined_exists" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">defined, exists</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns a true or false value if an item in the hash denoted by the key passed as an argument is defined or exists, respectively. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% hash.defined('somekey') ? 'yes' : 'no' %]</span> <span class="tt">[% hash.exists('somekey') ? 'yes' : 'no' %]</span></pre> <p> When called without any argument, <code>hash.defined</code> returns true if the hash itself is defined (e.g. the same effect as <code>scalar.defined</code>). </p> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_delete_" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">delete </h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Delete one or more items from the hash. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% hash.delete('foo', 'bar') %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_size" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">size</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns the number of key/value pairs in the hash. </p> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_item" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">item</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns an item from the hash using a key passed as an argument. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% hash.item('foo') %]</span> # same as hash.foo</pre> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="section"> <div class="head"> <h1 id="List_Virtual_Methods" onclick="switch_section(this)" title="Click title to show/hide section content.">List Virtual Methods</h1> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_first_last" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">first, last</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns the first/last item in the list. The item is not removed from the list. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% results.first %]</span> to <span class="tt">[% results.last %]</span></pre> <p> If either is given a numeric argument <code>n</code>, they return the first or last <code>n</code> elements: </p> <pre>The first 5 results are <span class="tt">[% results.first(5).join(", ") %]</span>.</pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_size_max" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">size, max</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns the size of a list (number of elements) and the maximum index number (size - 1), respectively. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% results.size %]</span> search results matched your query</pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_defined" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">defined</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns a true or false value if the item in the list denoted by the argument is defined. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% list.defined(3) ? 'yes' : 'no' %]</span></pre> <p> When called without any argument, <code>list.defined</code> returns true if the list itself is defined (e.g. the same effect as <code>scalar.defined</code>). </p> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_reverse" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">reverse</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns the items of the list in reverse order. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% FOREACH s IN scores.reverse %]</span> ... <span class="tt">[% END %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_join" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">join</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Joins the items in the list into a single string, using Perl's <code>join()</code> function. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% items.join(', ') %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_grep" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">grep</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns a list of the items in the list that match a regular expression pattern. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% FOREACH directory.files.grep('\.txt$') %]</span> ... <span class="tt">[% END %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_sort_nsort" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">sort, nsort</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns the items in alpha (<code>sort</code>) or numerical (<code>nsort</code>) order. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% library = books.sort %]</span></pre> <p> An argument can be provided to specify a search key. Where an item in the list is a hash reference, the search key will be used to retrieve a value from the hash which will then be used as the comparison value. Where an item is an object which implements a method of that name, the method will be called to return a comparison value. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% library = books.sort('author') %]</span></pre> <p> In the example, the <code>books</code> list can contains hash references with an <code>author</code> key or objects with an <code>author</code> method. </p> <p> You can also specify multiple sort keys. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% library = books.sort('author', 'title') %]</span></pre> <p> In this case the books will be sorted primarily by author. If two or more books have authors with the same name then they will be sorted by title. </p> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="method_unshift_item_push" class="method" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">unshift(item), push(item)</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> The <code>push()</code> method adds an item or items to the end of list. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% mylist.push(foo) %]</span> <span class="tt">[% mylist.push(foo, bar) %]</span> The C<unshift()> method adds an item or items to the start of a list.</pre> <pre><span class="tt">[% mylist.unshift(foo) %]</span> <span class="tt">[% mylist.push(foo, bar) %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_shift_pop" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">shift, pop</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Removes the first/last item from the list and returns it. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% first = mylist.shift %]</span> <span class="tt">[% last = mylist.pop %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_unique" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">unique</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns a list of the unique elements in a list, in the same order as in the list itself. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% mylist = [ 1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 4, 1, 4, 3, 4, 5 ] %]</span> <span class="tt">[% numbers = mylist.unique %]</span></pre> <p> While this can be explicitly sorted, it is not required that the list be sorted before the unique elements are pulled out (unlike the Unix command line utility). </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% numbers = mylist.unique.sort %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_import" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">import</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Appends the contents of one or more other lists to the end of the current list. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% one = [ 1 2 3 ]; two = [ 4 5 6 ]; three = [ 7 8 9 ]; one.import(two, three); one.join(', ); # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_merge" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">merge</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns a list composed of zero or more other lists: </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% list_one = [ 1 2 3 ]; list_two = [ 4 5 6 ]; list_three = [ 7 8 9 ]; list_four = list_one.merge(list_two, list_three); %]</span></pre> <p> The original lists are not modified. </p> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="method_slice" class="method" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">slice(from, to)</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns a slice of items in the list between the bounds passed as arguments. If the second argument, <code>to</code>, isn't specified, then it defaults to the last item in the list. The original list is not modified. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% first_three = list.slice(0,2) %]</span> <span class="tt">[% last_three = list.slice(-3, -1) %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="method_splice" class="method" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">splice(offset, length, list)</h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Behaves just like Perl's <code>splice()</code> function allowing you to selectively remove and/or replace elements in a list. It removes <code>length</code> items from the list, starting at <code>offset</code> and replaces them with the items in <code>list</code>. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% play_game = [ 'play', 'scrabble' ]; ping_pong = [ 'ping', 'pong' ]; redundant = play_game.splice(1, 1, ping_pong); redundant.join; # scrabble play_game.join; # play ping pong %]</span></pre> <p> The method returns a list of the items removed by the splice. You can use the <code>CALL</code> directive to ignore the output if you're not planning to do anything with it. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% CALL play_game.splice(1, 1, ping_pong) %]</span></pre> <p> As well as providing a reference to a list of replacement values, you can pass in a list of items. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% CALL list.splice(-1, 0, 'foo', 'bar') %]</span></pre> <p> Be careful about passing just one item in as a replacement value. If it is a reference to a list then the contents of the list will be used. If it's not a list, then it will be treated as a single value. You can use square brackets around a single item if you need to be explicit: </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% # push a single item, an_item CALL list.splice(-1, 0, an_item); # push the items from another_list CALL list.splice(-1, 0, another_list); # push a reference to another_list CALL list.splice(-1, 0, [ another_list ]); %]</span></pre> </div> </div> <div class="subsection"> <div class="head"> <h2 id="section_hash_" onclick="switch_subsection(this)" title="Click title to show/hide sub-section content.">hash </h2> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> Returns a reference to a hash array comprised of the elements in the list. The even-numbered elements (0, 2, 4, etc) become the keys and the odd-numbered elements (1, 3, 5, etc) the values. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% list = ['pi', 3.14, 'e', 2.718] %]</span> <span class="tt">[% hash = list.hash %]</span> <span class="tt">[% hash.pi %]</span> # 3.14 <span class="tt">[% hash.e %]</span> # 2.718</pre> <p> If a numerical argument is provided then the hash returned will have keys generated for each item starting at the number specified. </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% list = ['beer', 'peanuts'] %]</span> <span class="tt">[% hash = list.hash(1) %]</span> <span class="tt">[% hash.1 %]</span> # beer <span class="tt">[% hash.2 %]</span> # peanuts</pre> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="section"> <div class="head"> <h1 id="Automagic_Promotion_of_Scalar_to_List_for_Virtual_Methods" onclick="switch_section(this)" title="Click title to show/hide section content.">Automagic Promotion of Scalar to List for Virtual Methods</h1> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> In addition to the scalar virtual methods listed in the previous section, you can also call any list virtual method against a scalar. The item will be automagically promoted to a single element list and the appropriate list virtual method will be called. </p> <p> One particular benefit of this comes when calling subroutines or object methods that return a list of items, rather than the preferred reference to a list of items. In this case, the Template Toolkit automatically folds the items returned into a list. </p> <p> The upshot is that you can continue to use existing Perl modules or code that returns lists of items, without having to refactor it just to keep the Template Toolkit happy (by returning references to list). <code>Class::DBI</code> module is just one example of a particularly useful module which returns values this way. </p> <p> If only a single item is returned from a subroutine then the Template Toolkit assumes it meant to return a single item (rather than a list of 1 item) and leaves it well alone, returning the single value as it is. If you're executing a database query, for example, you might get 1 item returned, or perhaps many items which are then folded into a list. </p> <p> The <code>FOREACH</code> directive will happily accept either a list or a single item which it will treat as a list. So it's safe to write directives like this, where we assume that the <code>something</code> variable is bound to a subroutine which may return one or more items: </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% FOREACH item IN something %]</span> ... <span class="tt">[% END %]</span></pre> <p> The automagic promotion of scalars to single item lists means that you can also use list virtual methods safely, even if you only get one item returned. For example: </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% something.first %]</span> <span class="tt">[% something.join %]</span> <span class="tt">[% something.reverse.join(', ') %]</span></pre> <p> Note that this is very much a last-ditch behaviour. If the single item return is an object with a <code>first</code> method, for example, then that will be called, as expected, in preference to the list virtual method. </p> </div> </div> <div class="section"> <div class="head"> <h1 id="Defining_Custom_Virtual_Methods" onclick="switch_section(this)" title="Click title to show/hide section content.">Defining Custom Virtual Methods</h1> <a href="#body" class="top" title="Back up to the top of the page" >Top</a> </div> <div class="body"> <p> You can define your own virtual methods for scalars, lists and hash arrays. The <a href="../modules/Template/Stash.html">Template::Stash</a> package variables <code>$SCALAR_OPS</code>, <code>$LIST_OPS</code> and <code>$HASH_OPS</code> are references to hash arrays that define these virtual methods. <code>HASH_OPS</code> and <code>LIST_OPS</code> methods are subroutines that accept a hash/list reference as the first item. <code>SCALAR_OPS</code> are subroutines that accept a scalar value as the first item. Any other arguments specified when the method is called will be passed to the subroutine. </p> <pre># load Template::Stash to make method tables visible use Template::Stash; # define list method to return new list of odd numbers only $Template::Stash::LIST_OPS->{ odd } = sub { my $list = shift; return [ grep { $_ % 2 } @$list ]; };</pre> <p> Example template: </p> <pre><span class="tt">[% primes = [ 2, 3, 5, 7, 9 ] %]</span> <span class="tt">[% primes.odd.join(', ') %]</span> # 3, 5, 7, 9</pre> <p> TODO: document the define_vmethod() method which makes this even easier </p> </div> </div> </div></div> <br class="clear" /> <div class="pageinfo"> <a href="http://template-toolkit.org/docs/manual/VMethods.html">http://template-toolkit.org/docs/manual/VMethods.html</a> </div> </div> <div id="footer"> <a href="http://opensource.org/" class="osi"></a> <div class="controls"> <div class="pager"> <a href="../manual/Variables.html" title="Template::Manual::Variables" class="go back">Back<span class="about"><h4>Template::Manual::Variables</h4></span></a> <a href="../manual/index.html" title="Template::Manual" class="go up">Up<span class="about"><h4>Template::Manual</h4></span></a> <a href="../manual/Config.html" title="Template::Manual::Config" class="go next">Next<span class="about"><h4>Template::Manual::Config</h4></span></a> </div> </div> <div class="copyright"> Copyright © 1996-2008 <a href="http://wardley.org/">Andy Wardley</a>. All Rights Reserved. </div> <div class="licence"> The <a href="http://template-toolkit.org/">Template Toolkit</a> is <a href="http://opensource.org/">Open Source</a> software. You can redistribute and/or modify it under the terms of the <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php">GNU Public Licence</a> or the <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/artistic-license.php">Perl Artistic Licence</a>. </div> </div> <div id="palette"> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="#" class="blue" onclick="set_style('Clear Blue')"></a></li> <li><a href="#" class="orange" onclick="set_style('Clear Orange')"></a></li> <li><a href="#" class="green" onclick="set_style('Clear Green')"></a></li> <li><a href="#" class="purple" onclick="set_style('Clear Purple')"></a></li> <li><a href="#" class="grey" onclick="set_style('Clear Grey')"></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </body> </html>
