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.IX Title "Data::Swap 3pm"
.TH Data::Swap 3pm "2020-11-08" "perl v5.32.0" "User Contributed Perl Documentation"
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.SH "NAME"
Data::Swap \- Swap type and contents of variables
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
.Vb 1
\&    use Data::Swap;
\&
\&    my $p = [];
\&    my $q = {};
\&    print "$p $q\en";            # ARRAY(0x965cc) HASH(0x966b0)
\&    swap $p, $q;                # swap referenced variables
\&    print "$p $q\en";            # HASH(0x965cc) ARRAY(0x966b0)
\&
\&    my $x = {};
\&    my $y = $x;                 # $x and $y reference same var
\&    swap $x, [1, 2, 3];         # swap referenced var with an array
\&    print "@$y\en";              # 1 2 3
\&
\&    use Data::Swap \*(Aqderef\*(Aq;
\&
\&    my @refs = (\e$x, \e@y);
\&    $_++ for deref @refs;       # dereference a list of references
\&
\&    # Note that I omitted \e%z from the @refs because $_++ would fail 
\&    # on a key, but deref does work on hash\-refs too of course.
.Ve
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
This module allows you to swap the contents of two referenced variables, even
if they have different types.
.PP
The main application is to change the base type of an object after it has been
created, for example for dynamic loading of data structures:
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    swap $self, bless $replacement, $newclass;
.Ve
.PP
This module additionally contain the function \f(CW\*(C`deref\*(C'\fR which acts like a
generic list-dereferencing operator.
.SH "FUNCTIONS"
.IX Header "FUNCTIONS"
.SS "swap \fI\s-1REF1\s0\fP, \fI\s-1REF2\s0\fP"
.IX Subsection "swap REF1, REF2"
Swaps the contents (and if necessary, type) of two referenced variables.
.SS "deref \fI\s-1LIST\s0\fP"
.IX Subsection "deref LIST"
Dereferences a list of scalar refs, array refs and hash refs.  Mainly exists 
because you can't use \f(CW\*(C`map\*(C'\fR for this application, as it makes copies of the 
dereferenced values.
.SH "KNOWN ISSUES"
.IX Header "KNOWN ISSUES"
You can't \f(CW\*(C`swap\*(C'\fR an overloaded object with a non-overloaded one, 
unless you use Perl 5.10 or later.
.PP
Also, don't use \f(CW\*(C`swap\*(C'\fR to change the type of a directly accessible 
variable \*(-- like \f(CW\*(C`swap \e$x, \e@y\*(C'\fR.  That's just asking for segfaults.  
Unfortunately there is no good way for me to detect and prevent this.
.SH "AUTHOR"
.IX Header "AUTHOR"
Matthijs van Duin <xmath@cpan.org>
.PP
Copyright (C) 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008  Matthijs van Duin.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify 
it under the same terms as Perl itself.