List::Util

• NAME
• SYNOPSIS
• DESCRIPTION
• KNOWN BUGS
• SUGGESTED ADDITIONS
• SEE ALSO
• COPYRIGHT

NAME

List::Util - A selection of general-utility list subroutines

SYNOPSIS

    use List::Util qw(first max maxstr min minstr reduce shuffle sum);

DESCRIPTION

List::Util contains a selection of subroutines that people have expressed would be nice to have in the perl core, but the usage would not really be high enough to warrant the use of a keyword, and the size so small such that being individual extensions would be wasteful.

By default List::Util does not export any subroutines. The subroutines defined are

• first BLOCK LIST

  Similar to grep in that it evaluates BLOCK setting $_ to each element of LIST in turn. first returns the first element where the result from BLOCK is a true value. If BLOCK never returns true or LIST was empty then undef is returned.

      $foo = first { defined($_) } @list    # first defined value in @list
      $foo = first { $_ > $value } @list    # first value in @list which
                                            # is greater than $value

  This function could be implemented using reduce like this

      $foo = reduce { defined($a) ? $a : wanted($b) ? $b : undef } undef, @list

  for example wanted() could be defined() which would return the first defined value in @list

• max LIST

  Returns the entry in the list with the highest numerical value. If the list is empty then undef is returned.

      $foo = max 1..10                # 10
      $foo = max 3,9,12               # 12
      $foo = max @bar, @baz           # whatever

  This function could be implemented using reduce like this

      $foo = reduce { $a > $b ? $a : $b } 1..10

• maxstr LIST

  Similar to max , but treats all the entries in the list as strings and returns the highest string as defined by the gt operator. If the list is empty then undef is returned.

      $foo = maxstr 'A'..'Z'          # 'Z'
      $foo = maxstr "hello","world"   # "world"
      $foo = maxstr @bar, @baz        # whatever

  This function could be implemented using reduce like this

      $foo = reduce { $a gt $b ? $a : $b } 'A'..'Z'

• min LIST

  Similar to max but returns the entry in the list with the lowest numerical value. If the list is empty then undef is returned.

      $foo = min 1..10                # 1
      $foo = min 3,9,12               # 3
      $foo = min @bar, @baz           # whatever

  This function could be implemented using reduce like this

      $foo = reduce { $a < $b ? $a : $b } 1..10

• minstr LIST

  Similar to min , but treats all the entries in the list as strings and returns the lowest string as defined by the lt operator. If the list is empty then undef is returned.

      $foo = minstr 'A'..'Z'          # 'A'
      $foo = minstr "hello","world"   # "hello"
      $foo = minstr @bar, @baz        # whatever

  This function could be implemented using reduce like this

      $foo = reduce { $a lt $b ? $a : $b } 'A'..'Z'

• reduce BLOCK LIST

  Reduces LIST by calling BLOCK, in a scalar context, multiple times, setting $a and $b each time. The first call will be with $a and $b set to the first two elements of the list, subsequent calls will be done by setting $a to the result of the previous call and $b to the next element in the list.

  Returns the result of the last call to BLOCK. If LIST is empty then undef is returned. If LIST only contains one element then that element is returned and BLOCK is not executed.

      $foo = reduce { $a < $b ? $a : $b } 1..10       # min
      $foo = reduce { $a lt $b ? $a : $b } 'aa'..'zz' # minstr
      $foo = reduce { $a + $b } 1 .. 10               # sum
      $foo = reduce { $a . $b } @bar                  # concat

  If your algorithm requires that reduce produce an identity value, then make sure that you always pass that identity value as the first argument to prevent undef being returned

    $foo = reduce { $a + $b } 0, @values;             # sum with 0 identity value

• shuffle LIST

  Returns the elements of LIST in a random order

      @cards = shuffle 0..51      # 0..51 in a random order

• sum LIST

  Returns the sum of all the elements in LIST. If LIST is empty then undef is returned.

      $foo = sum 1..10                # 55
      $foo = sum 3,9,12               # 24
      $foo = sum @bar, @baz           # whatever

  This function could be implemented using reduce like this

      $foo = reduce { $a + $b } 1..10

  If your algorithm requires that sum produce an identity of 0, then make sure that you always pass 0 as the first argument to prevent undef being returned

    $foo = sum 0, @values;

• sum0 LIST

  Similar to sum , except this returns 0 when given an empty list, rather than undef.

KNOWN BUGS

With perl versions prior to 5.005 there are some cases where reduce will return an incorrect result. This will show up as test 7 of reduce.t failing.

SUGGESTED ADDITIONS

The following are additions that have been requested, but I have been reluctant to add due to them being very simple to implement in perl

  # One argument is true
  sub any { $_ && return 1 for @_; 0 }
  # All arguments are true
  sub all { $_ || return 0 for @_; 1 }
  # All arguments are false
  sub none { $_ && return 0 for @_; 1 }
  # One argument is false
  sub notall { $_ || return 1 for @_; 0 }
  # How many elements are true
  sub true { scalar grep { $_ } @_ }
  # How many elements are false
  sub false { scalar grep { !$_ } @_ }

SEE ALSO

Scalar::Util, List::MoreUtils

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1997-2007 Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

 

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