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NAME
Template::Plugin::String - Object oriented interface for string
manipulation
SYNOPSIS
# create String objects via USE directive
[% USE String %]
[% USE String 'initial text' %]
[% USE String text => 'initial text' %]
# or from an existing String via new()
[% newstring = String.new %]
[% newstring = String.new('newstring text') %]
[% newstring = String.new( text => 'newstring text' ) %]
# or from an existing String via copy()
[% newstring = String.copy %]
# append text to string
[% String.append('text to append') %]
# format left, right or center/centre padded
[% String.left(20) %]
[% String.right(20) %]
[% String.center(20) %] # American spelling
[% String.centre(20) %] # European spelling
# and various other methods...
DESCRIPTION
This module implements a "String" class for doing stringy things to text
in an object-oriented way.
You can create a "String" object via the "USE" directive, adding any
initial text value as an argument or as the named parameter "text".
[% USE String %]
[% USE String 'initial text' %]
[% USE String text='initial text' %]
The object created will be referenced as "String" by default, but you
can provide a different variable name for the object to be assigned to:
[% USE greeting = String 'Hello World' %]
Once you've got a "String" object, you can use it as a prototype to
create other "String" objects with the "new()" method.
[% USE String %]
[% greeting = String.new('Hello World') %]
The "new()" method also accepts an initial text string as an argument or
the named parameter "text".
[% greeting = String.new( text => 'Hello World' ) %]
You can also call "copy()" to create a new "String" as a copy of the
original.
[% greet2 = greeting.copy %]
The "String" object has a "text()" method to return the content of the
string.
[% greeting.text %]
However, it is sufficient to simply print the string and let the
overloaded stringification operator call the "text()" method
automatically for you.
[% greeting %]
Thus, you can treat "String" objects pretty much like any regular piece
of text, interpolating it into other strings, for example:
[% msg = "It printed '$greeting' and then dumped core\n" %]
You also have the benefit of numerous other methods for manipulating the
string.
[% msg.append("PS Don't eat the yellow snow") %]
Note that all methods operate on and mutate the contents of the string
itself. If you want to operate on a copy of the string then simply take
a copy first:
[% msg.copy.append("PS Don't eat the yellow snow") %]
These methods return a reference to the "String" object itself. This
allows you to chain multiple methods together.
[% msg.copy.append('foo').right(72) %]
It also means that in the above examples, the "String" is returned which
causes the "text()" method to be called, which results in the new value
of the string being printed. To suppress printing of the string, you can
use the "CALL" directive.
[% foo = String.new('foo') %]
[% foo.append('bar') %] # prints "foobar"
[% CALL foo.append('bar') %] # nothing
CONSTRUCTOR METHODS
These methods are used to create new "String" objects.
new()
Creates a new string using an initial value passed as a positional
argument or the named parameter "text".
[% USE String %]
[% msg = String.new('Hello World') %]
[% msg = String.new( text => 'Hello World' ) %]
copy()
Creates a new "String" object which contains a copy of the original
string.
[% msg2 = msg.copy %]
INSPECTOR METHODS
These methods are used to examine the string.
text()
Returns the internal text value of the string. The stringification
operator is overloaded to call this method. Thus the following are
equivalent:
[% msg.text %]
[% msg %]
length()
Returns the length of the string.
[% USE String("foo") %]
[% String.length %] # => 3
search($pattern)
Searches the string for the regular expression specified in $pattern
returning true if found or false otherwise.
[% item = String.new('foo bar baz wiz waz woz') %]
[% item.search('wiz') ? 'WIZZY! :-)' : 'not wizzy :-(' %]
split($pattern, $limit)
Splits the string based on the delimiter $pattern and optional $limit.
Delegates to Perl's internal "split()" so the parameters are exactly the
same.
[% FOREACH item.split %]
...
[% END %]
[% FOREACH item.split('baz|waz') %]
...
[% END %]
MUTATOR METHODS
These methods modify the internal value of the string. For example:
[% USE str=String('foobar') %]
[% str.append('.html') %] # str => 'foobar.html'
The value of "str" is now '"foobar.html"'. If you don't want to modify
the string then simply take a copy first.
[% str.copy.append('.html') %]
These methods all return a reference to the "String" object itself. This
has two important benefits. The first is that when used as above, the
"String" object '"str"' returned by the "append()" method will be
stringified with a call to its "text()" method. This will return the
newly modified string content. In other words, a directive like:
[% str.append('.html') %]
will update the string and also print the new value. If you just want to
update the string but not print the new value then use "CALL".
[% CALL str.append('.html') %]
The other benefit of these methods returning a reference to the "String"
is that you can chain as many different method calls together as you
like. For example:
[% String.append('.html').trim.format(href) %]
Here are the methods:
push($suffix, ...) / append($suffix, ...)
Appends all arguments to the end of the string. The "append()" method is
provided as an alias for "push()".
[% msg.push('foo', 'bar') %]
[% msg.append('foo', 'bar') %]
pop($suffix)
Removes the suffix passed as an argument from the end of the String.
[% USE String 'foo bar' %]
[% String.pop(' bar') %] # => 'foo'
unshift($prefix, ...) / prepend($prefix, ...)
Prepends all arguments to the beginning of the string. The "prepend()"
method is provided as an alias for "unshift()".
[% msg.unshift('foo ', 'bar ') %]
[% msg.prepend('foo ', 'bar ') %]
shift($prefix)
Removes the prefix passed as an argument from the start of the String.
[% USE String 'foo bar' %]
[% String.shift('foo ') %] # => 'bar'
left($pad)
If the length of the string is less than $pad then the string is left
formatted and padded with spaces to $pad length.
[% msg.left(20) %]
right($pad)
As per left() but right padding the "String" to a length of $pad.
[% msg.right(20) %]
center($pad) / centre($pad)
As per left() and right() but formatting the "String" to be centered
within a space padded string of length $pad. The "centre()" method is
provided as an alias for "center()".
[% msg.center(20) %] # American spelling
[% msg.centre(20) %] # European spelling
format($format)
Apply a format in the style of "sprintf()" to the string.
[% USE String("world") %]
[% String.format("Hello %s\n") %] # => "Hello World\n"
upper()
Converts the string to upper case.
[% USE String("foo") %]
[% String.upper %] # => 'FOO'
lower()
Converts the string to lower case
[% USE String("FOO") %]
[% String.lower %] # => 'foo'
capital()
Converts the first character of the string to upper case.
[% USE String("foo") %]
[% String.capital %] # => 'Foo'
The remainder of the string is left untouched. To force the string to be
all lower case with only the first letter capitalised, you can do
something like this:
[% USE String("FOO") %]
[% String.lower.capital %] # => 'Foo'
chop()
Removes the last character from the string.
[% USE String("foop") %]
[% String.chop %] # => 'foo'
chomp()
Removes the trailing newline from the string.
[% USE String("foo\n") %]
[% String.chomp %] # => 'foo'
trim()
Removes all leading and trailing whitespace from the string
[% USE String(" foo \n\n ") %]
[% String.trim %] # => 'foo'
collapse()
Removes all leading and trailing whitespace and collapses any sequences
of multiple whitespace to a single space.
[% USE String(" \n\r \t foo \n \n bar \n") %]
[% String.collapse %] # => "foo bar"
truncate($length, $suffix)
Truncates the string to $length characters.
[% USE String('long string') %]
[% String.truncate(4) %] # => 'long'
If $suffix is specified then it will be appended to the truncated
string. In this case, the string will be further shortened by the length
of the suffix to ensure that the newly constructed string complete with
suffix is exactly $length characters long.
[% USE msg = String('Hello World') %]
[% msg.truncate(8, '...') %] # => 'Hello...'
replace($search, $replace)
Replaces all occurrences of $search in the string with $replace.
[% USE String('foo bar foo baz') %]
[% String.replace('foo', 'wiz') %] # => 'wiz bar wiz baz'
remove($search)
Remove all occurrences of $search in the string.
[% USE String('foo bar foo baz') %]
[% String.remove('foo ') %] # => 'bar baz'
repeat($count)
Repeats the string $count times.
[% USE String('foo ') %]
[% String.repeat(3) %] # => 'foo foo foo '
AUTHOR
Andy Wardley <abw AT wardley.org> <http://wardley.org/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 1996-2007 Andy Wardley. All Rights Reserved.
This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
SEE ALSO
Template::Plugin
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