UNIVERSAL - base class for ALL classes (blessed references)
$is_io = $fd->isa("IO::Handle");
$is_io = Class->isa("IO::Handle");
$does_log = $obj->DOES("Logger");
$does_log = Class->DOES("Logger");
$sub = $obj->can("print");
$sub = Class->can("print");
$sub = eval { $ref->can("fandango") };
$ver = $obj->VERSION;
# but never do this!
$is_io = UNIVERSAL::isa($fd, "IO::Handle");
$sub = UNIVERSAL::can($obj, "print");
UNIVERSAL is the base class from which all blessed references inherit.
See perlobj.
UNIVERSAL provides the following methods:
- $obj->isa( TYPE )
-
CLASS->isa( TYPE ) CLASS->isa( TYPE )
-
eval { VAL->isa( TYPE ) } eval { VAL->isa( TYPE ) }
-
Where
- TYPE
-
is a package name
- $obj
-
is a blessed reference or a package name
- CLASS
-
is a package name
- VAL
-
is any of the above or an unblessed reference
When used as an instance or class method ($obj->isa( TYPE ) ),
isa returns true if $obj is blessed into package TYPE or
inherits from package TYPE .
When used as a class method (CLASS->isa( TYPE ) , sometimes
referred to as a static method), isa returns true if CLASS
inherits from (or is itself) the name of the package TYPE or
inherits from package TYPE .
If you're not sure what you have (the VAL case), wrap the method call in an
eval block to catch the exception if VAL is undefined.
If you want to be sure that you're calling isa as a method, not a class,
check the invocand with blessed from the Scalar::Util manpage first:
use Scalar::Util 'blessed';
if ( blessed( $obj ) && $obj->isa("Some::Class") ) {
...
}
- $obj->DOES( ROLE )
-
CLASS->DOES( ROLE ) CLASS->DOES( ROLE )
-
DOES checks if the object or class performs the role ROLE . A role is a
named group of specific behavior (often methods of particular names and
signatures), similar to a class, but not necessarily a complete class by
itself. For example, logging or serialization may be roles.
DOES and isa are similar, in that if either is true, you know that the
object or class on which you call the method can perform specific behavior.
However, DOES is different from isa in that it does not care how the
invocand performs the operations, merely that it does. (isa of course
mandates an inheritance relationship. Other relationships include aggregation,
delegation, and mocking.)
By default, classes in Perl only perform the UNIVERSAL role, as well as the
role of all classes in their inheritance. In other words, by default DOES
responds identically to isa .
There is a relationship between roles and classes, as each class implies the
existence of a role of the same name. There is also a relationship between
inheritance and roles, in that a subclass that inherits from an ancestor class
implicitly performs any roles its parent performs. Thus you can use DOES in
place of isa safely, as it will return true in all places where isa will
return true (provided that any overridden DOES and isa methods behave
appropriately).
- $obj->can( METHOD )
-
CLASS->can( METHOD ) CLASS->can( METHOD )
-
eval { VAL->can( METHOD ) } eval { VAL->can( METHOD ) }
-
can checks if the object or class has a method called METHOD . If it does,
then it returns a reference to the sub. If it does not, then it returns
undef. This includes methods inherited or imported by $obj , CLASS , or
VAL .
can cannot know whether an object will be able to provide a method through
AUTOLOAD (unless the object's class has overridden can appropriately), so a
return value of undef does not necessarily mean the object will not be able
to handle the method call. To get around this some module authors use a forward
declaration (see perlsub) for methods they will handle via AUTOLOAD. For
such 'dummy' subs, can will still return a code reference, which, when
called, will fall through to the AUTOLOAD. If no suitable AUTOLOAD is provided,
calling the coderef will cause an error.
You may call can as a class (static) method or an object method.
Again, the same rule about having a valid invocand applies -- use an eval
block or blessed if you need to be extra paranoid.
- VERSION ( [ REQUIRE ] )
-
VERSION will return the value of the variable $VERSION in the
package the object is blessed into. If REQUIRE is given then
it will do a comparison and die if the package version is not
greater than or equal to REQUIRE , or if either $VERSION or REQUIRE
is not a ``lax'' version number (as defined by the version module).
The return from VERSION will actually be the stringified version object
using the package $VERSION scalar, which is guaranteed to be equivalent
but may not be precisely the contents of the $VERSION scalar. If you want
the actual contents of $VERSION , use $CLASS::VERSION instead.
VERSION can be called as either a class (static) method or an object
method.
NOTE: can directly uses Perl's internal code for method lookup, and
isa uses a very similar method and cache-ing strategy. This may cause
strange effects if the Perl code dynamically changes @ISA in any package.
You may add other methods to the UNIVERSAL class via Perl or XS code.
You do not need to use UNIVERSAL to make these methods
available to your program (and you should not do so).
None.
Previous versions of this documentation suggested using isa as
a function to determine the type of a reference:
$yes = UNIVERSAL::isa($h, "HASH");
$yes = UNIVERSAL::isa("Foo", "Bar");
The problem is that this code would never call an overridden isa method in
any class. Instead, use reftype from the Scalar::Util manpage for the first case:
use Scalar::Util 'reftype';
$yes = reftype( $h ) eq "HASH";
and the method form of isa for the second:
$yes = Foo->isa("Bar");
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