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More direct syntax for hashes
Maintainer: Nathan Torkington <gnat@frii.com> Date: 5 Sep 2000 Last Modified: 15 Sep 2000 Mailing List: perl6-language-data@perl.org Number: 196 Version: 2 Status: Frozen
scalar(%hash) should return what scalar(keys %hash) currently
returns.
reset %hash should reset the hash iterator, instead of calling
keys or values as is currently the case.
The parser should special-case the variations of sort %hash so
that it returns the keys and value, calling the comparison function
for keys.
* Clarified that new reset() syntax doesn't clash with existing * Fixed braino in description of "sort %hash"
While Perl has hashes as a built-in data type, the mechanism for working with hashes is often built on top of list primitives. While this is acceptable, it's not as convenient as it could be. I'm arguing for more direct support of hashes in the language.
Proposal 1 is that a hash in scalar context evaluate to the number
of keys in the hash. You can find that out now, but only by using
the keys() function in scalar context.
Currently %hash in scalar context returns a false value if %hash
is empty, or a string like "4/8" showing how full the hash data
structure is. This string is rarely useful to the programmer.
Mostly it's just used for its true/false value:
if (%hash) { ... }
Proposal 1 would retain that use, but also make:
$count = %hash;
analogous to
$count = @array;
Proposal 2 is that the iterator in a hash be reset through an explicit
call to the reset() function. In perl5, one must call keys()
or values() to reset the iterator, an odd overloading of these
functions behaviour. I propose that the keys() and values()
functions no longer have this side-effect, but instead reset() be
used:
keys %hash; # reset the iterator in perl5 reset %hash; # same but in in perl6
This function more obviously describes what is happening. reset() also has a meaning, but that functionality does not clash syntactically with this new meaning. In any event, the move away from global symbol table actions will probably remove the current functionality of reset().
Proposal 3 is to have the parser identify sort %hash and its
variations, and automatically rewrite it.
I'd like to be able to say:
foreach ($k,$v) (sort %hash) { ... }
This would be equivalent to:
foreach ($k,$v) (map { $_ => $hash{$_}
sort
keys %hash)
{ ... }
Similarly one should be able to use a sort comparison function with a hash. I do not expect this hash knowledge to apply to function calls or anything else that might return key-value pairs. This is purely when the data to be sorted is in a hash variable.
This relies on RFC 173's foreach() extensions to be useful.
Proposal 1 simply changes the scalar value of a hash. The old functionality would have to be available from a module for the perl526 program to be able to translate any program that relied on this knowledge of the data structure (there are a few, though not many, that do).
Proposal 2 removes the side-effects from keys() and values(), and puts it into reset(). The reset() function is going to need a profound overhaul anyway (given how intensely symbol-table driven it is) and it is the obvious place for this functionality.
Proposal 3 could be done in the parser as a rewrite of the source code. However, I suspect it would run faster if a flag on the sort() op said "you're getting a hash structure" and sort() took care of it all internally. That'd avoid multiple op dispatches. This is an implementation decision for better performance, though. At the bare minimum, source code rewriting would implement the function with acceptable performance.
RFC 173: Allow multiple loop variables in foreach statements
perlfunc manpage for keys(), values() and reset() documentation
perlsyn manpage for foreach() documentation