Class::MakeMethods::Utility::Ref (3pm)

  use Class::MakeMethods::Utility::Ref qw( ref_clone ref_compare );

  $deep_copy = ref_clone( $original );
  $positive_zero_or_negative = ref_compare( $item_a, $item_b );

This module provides utility functions to copy and compare arbitrary references, including full traversal of nested data structures.

\s-1REFERENCE\s0

The following functions are provided:

\fIref_clone()\fP

Make a recursive copy of a reference.

\fIref_compare()\fP

Attempt to recursively compare two references.

If they are not the same, try to be consistent about returning a positive or negative number so that it can be used for sorting. The sort order is kinda arbitrary.

See Class::MakeMethods for general information about this distribution.

See Ref for the original version of the clone and compare functions used above.

See Clone (v0.09 on \s-1CPAN\s0 as of 2000-09-21) for a clone method with an \s-1XS\s0 implementation.

The Perl6 \s-1RFP\s0 #67 proposes including clone functionality in the core.

See Data::Compare (v0.01 on \s-1CPAN\s0 as of 1999-04-24) for a Compare method which checks two references for similarity, but it does not provide positive/negative values for ordering purposes.