NAME Data::Couplet - Yet another (But Hopefully Better) Key-Value Storage mechanism VERSION version 0.02004314 SYNOPSIS use Data::Couplet; # Retain order. my $couplet = Data::Couplet->new( a => $b , c => $d ); my $output = $couplet->value('a'); # returns $b; my $hash = { 'this is a' => 'key' }; $couplet->set( $hash, "hello"); $couplet->value( $hash ); # hello ALPHA CODE Lots of stuff is probably still broken, unimplemented, untested. User beware DIFFERENT Why is this module different? 1. No Tied Hashes. Tied hashes are IMO Ugly. Objects are far more handy for many things. Especially in moose world. You want tied hashes, do it yourself. 2. Trying Hard to preserve non-scalar keys. I want it to be possible, to retain arbitrary references used as keys. 3. Permutation. Its not here yet, but there *Will* eventually be reordering functions. I seriously looked all over CPAN for something that suited my needs and didn't find any. I then tried with Tie::IxHash::ButMoreFun, and then discovered that how I was using Tie::IxHash wasn't even sustainable on different versions of Perl, and based on the 1997 release date, I gave up on seeing that fixed. METHODS CONSTRUCTOR ->new( %orderd_pairs ) Create a new Data::Couplet entity using a series of ordered pairs. $c = Data::Couplet->new( 'a' => 'b', 'c' => 'd' ); ENTRY CREATION ->set( Any $object, Any $value ) : $self : Modifier Record the association of a key ( any object that can be coerced into a string ) to a value. New entries are pushed on the logical right hand end of it in array context. # { 'a' => 'b', 'c' => 'd' } set( 'a', 'e' ); # { 'a' => 'e', 'c' => 'd' } set('e', 'a' ); # { 'a' => 'e', 'c' => 'd', 'e' => 'a' } ENTRY REMOVAL ->unset( Array[Any] @objects ) : $self : Modifier Entries are ripped out of the structure, and all items moved around to fill the void. # { 'a' => 'b', 'c' => 'd','e'=>'f' } ->unset( 'c' ); # { 'a' => 'b', 'e'=>'f' } ->unset('a'); # { 'e' => 'f' } ->unset_at( Array[Int] @indices ) : $self : Modifier Like ->unset, except you know where ( logically ) in the order off things the entry you wish to delete is. ->unset_at( 1 ); ->unset_at( 0 ); Should be identical to the above code. ->unset_key( Array[Str] @keys ) : $self : Modifier This is what ->unset ultimately calls, except ->unset does implicit object_to_key conversion first. At present, that's not anything huge, its just $object to convert it to a string. But this may change at some future time. So use that method instead. VALUE MANIPULATION ->value( Any $object ) : Any $value Returns a value associated with a key object. See "unset" for the semantics of what object keys are. ->value_at( Int $index ) : Any $value Like value, but you need to know where in the data set the item is. ->values() : Any @list returns an array of all stored values in order. ->values_ref() : ArrayRef[Any] $list Just some nice syntax for [$o->values] ->key_values() : Any @list Returns an ordered sequence of key,value pairs, just like that passed to the constructor. my @d = $o->key_values() while( @d ){ my $key = shift @d; my $value = shift @d; print "$key => $value\n" } ->key_values_paired() : Any[ArrayRef] @list Returns like ->key_values does but key/value is grouped for your convenience for ( $o->key_values_paired() ){ my ( $key, $value ) = @{ $_ }; } KEY MANIPULATION ->keys() : @list returns all known keys in order ->key_at( Int $index ) : String Given an index, return the key that holds that place. ->key_object( String $key ) : Any $object Given a string key, returns the object stored there. This is probably very unhelpful to you unless you explicitly asked us for our internal key name. ->key_object_at( Int $index ) : Any $object As with key_object, except partially useful, because you can fetch by ID. METHODS FROM PLUGINS By default, this package imports a few methods from various plug-ins. * Data::Couplet::Plugin::KeyCount ->count ->last_index ->indices * Data::Couplet::Plugin::BasicReorder ->move_up ->move_down ->swap AUTHOR Kent Fredric <kentnl at cpan.org> COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This software is copyright (c) 2011 by Kent Fredric. This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.