Variable::Alias 0.01

Variable::Alias is a Perl module created to alias any variable to any other variable.

SYNOPSIS

use Variable::Alias alias;
my $src;
my $a;
our $b;
my @c;
our @d;

alias $src => $a;
alias $a => $b;
alias $b => $c[0];
alias @c => @d;

$src=src;
# All the other variables now have the string
# src in the appropriate places.

There are various ways to alias one variable to another in Perl. The most popular is by assigning to typeglobs. This is quite efective, but only works with globals. Another method is to use a module like Lexical::Alias or Devel::LexAlias, but as their names suggest, these only work with lexicals. Theres no way to alias an element of an array or hash.

Variable::Alias changes all that. It uses a tie to provide One True Way to alias a variable.

Interface

Variable::Alias may export any or all of five functions. If youve used Lexical::Alias, the interface is virtually identical.

alias(VAR, VAR)

alias takes two variables of any type (scalar, array or hash) and aliases them. Make sure they have the sigil you want on the front.

This function is only available in Perl 5.8.0 and later, because the prototype tricks it uses were first implemented in that version.

alias_s(SCALAR, SCALAR)

alias_s takes two scalars and aliases them.

alias_a(ARRAY, ARRAY)

alias_a takes two arrays and aliases them. Note that this is actual arrays, not array elements, although you can alias references in elements, like so:

alias_a(@short, @{$some->sequence->{of}->calls->{thats}[2]{long}});

alias_h(HASH, HASH)

alias_h takes two hashes and aliases them.

alias_r(REF, REF)

alias_r takes two references and aliases them. The referents must be of the same type.