Data::Dump

Data::Dump(3pm)       User Contributed Perl Documentation      Data::Dump(3pm)



NAME
       Data::Dump - Pretty printing of data structures

SYNOPSIS
        use Data::Dump qw(dump);

        $str = dump(@list)
        @copy_of_list = eval $str;

DESCRIPTION
       This module provides a single function called dump() that takes a list
       of values as its argument and produces a string as its result.  The
       string contains Perl code that, when "eval"ed, produces a deep copy of
       the original arguments.  The string is formatted for easy reading.

       If dump() is called in a void context, then the dump is printed on
       STDERR instead of being returned.

       If you don't like importing a function that overrides Perl's not-so-
       useful builtin, then you can also import the same function as pp(),
       mnemonic for "pretty-print".

HISTORY
       The "Data::Dump" module grew out of frustration with Sarathy's in-most-
       cases-excellent "Data::Dumper".  Basic ideas and some code are shared
       with Sarathy's module.

       The "Data::Dump" module provides a much simpler interface than
       "Data::Dumper".  No OO interface is available and there are no configu-
       ration options to worry about (yet :-).  The other benefit is that the
       dump produced does not try to set any variables.  It only returns what
       is needed to produce a copy of the arguments.  This means that
       "dump("foo")" simply returns "foo", and "dump(1..5)" simply returns
       "(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)".

SEE ALSO
       Data::Dumper, Storable

AUTHORS
       The "Data::Dump" module is written by Gisle Aas <gisle AT aas.no>, based
       on "Data::Dumper" by Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar AT umich.edu>.

        Copyright 1998-2000,2003-2004 Gisle Aas.
        Copyright 1996-1998 Gurusamy Sarathy.

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the same terms as Perl itself.



perl v5.8.8                       2006-11-29                   Data::Dump(3pm)