# PODNAME: Moose::Manual::Construction # ABSTRACT: Object construction (and destruction) with Moose __END__ =pod =encoding UTF-8 =head1 NAME Moose::Manual::Construction - Object construction (and destruction) with Moose =head1 VERSION version 2.2207 =head1 WHERE'S THE CONSTRUCTOR? B method for your classes!> When you C in your class, your class becomes a subclass of L. The L provides a C method for your class. If you follow our recommendations in L and make your class immutable, then you actually get a class-specific C method "inlined" in your class. =head1 OBJECT CONSTRUCTION AND ATTRIBUTES The Moose-provided constructor accepts a hash or hash reference of named parameters matching your attributes (actually, matching their Cs). This is just another way in which Moose keeps you from worrying I classes are implemented. Simply define a class and you're ready to start creating objects! =head1 OBJECT CONSTRUCTION HOOKS Moose lets you hook into object construction. You can validate an object's state, do logging, customize construction from parameters which do not match your attributes, or maybe allow non-hash(ref) constructor arguments. You can do this by creating C and/or C methods. If these methods exist in your class, Moose will arrange for them to be called as part of the object construction process. =head2 BUILDARGS The C method is called as a class method I an object is created. It will receive all of the arguments that were passed to C I, and is expected to return a hash reference. This hash reference will be used to construct the object, so it should contain keys matching your attributes' names (well, Cs). One common use for C is to accommodate a non-hash(ref) calling style. For example, we might want to allow our Person class to be called with a single argument of a social security number, C<< Person->new($ssn) >>. Without a C method, Moose will complain, because it expects a hash or hash reference. We can use the C method to accommodate this calling style: around BUILDARGS => sub { my $orig = shift; my $class = shift; if ( @_ == 1 && !ref $_[0] ) { return $class->$orig( ssn => $_[0] ); } else { return $class->$orig(@_); } }; Note the call to C<< $class->$orig >>. This will call the default C in L. This method takes care of distinguishing between a hash reference and a plain hash for you. =head2 BUILD The C method is called I an object is created. There are several reasons to use a C method. One of the most common is to check that the object state is valid. While we can validate individual attributes through the use of types, we can't validate the state of a whole object that way. sub BUILD { my $self = shift; if ( $self->country_of_residence eq 'USA' ) { die 'All US residents must have an SSN' unless $self->has_ssn; } } Another use of a C method could be for logging or tracking object creation. sub BUILD { my $self = shift; debug( 'Made a new person - SSN = ', $self->ssn, ); } The C method is called with the hash reference of the parameters passed to the constructor (after munging by C). This gives you a chance to do something with parameters that do not represent object attributes. sub BUILD { my $self = shift; my $args = shift; $self->add_friend( My::User->new( user_id => $args->{user_id}, ) ); } =head3 BUILD and parent classes The interaction between multiple C methods in an inheritance hierarchy is different from normal Perl methods. BSUPER::BUILD >>>, nor should you ever apply a method modifier to C. Roles are an exception to this rule, though: it's completely acceptable to apply a method modifier to C in a role; you can even provide an empty C subroutine in a role so the role is applicable even to classes without their own C. Moose arranges to have all of the C methods in a hierarchy called when an object is constructed, I. This might be surprising at first, because it reverses the normal order of method inheritance. The theory behind this is that C methods can only be used for increasing specialization of a class's constraints, so it makes sense to call the least specific C method first. Also, this is how Perl 6 does it. =head1 OBJECT DESTRUCTION Moose provides a hook for object destruction with the C method. As with C, you should never explicitly call C<< $self->SUPER::DEMOLISH >>. Moose will arrange for all of the C methods in your hierarchy to be called, from most to least specific. Each C method is called with a single argument. This is a boolean value indicating whether or not this method was called as part of the global destruction process (when the Perl interpreter exits). In most cases, Perl's built-in garbage collection is sufficient, and you won't need to provide a C method. =head2 Error Handling During Destruction The interaction of object destruction and Perl's global C<$@> and C<$?> variables can be very confusing. Moose always localizes C<$?> when an object is being destroyed. This means that if you explicitly call C, that exit code will be preserved even if an object's destructor makes a system call. Moose also preserves C<$@> against any C calls that may happen during object destruction. However, if an object's C method actually dies, Moose explicitly rethrows that error. If you do not like this behavior, you will have to provide your own C method and use that instead of the one provided by L. You can do this to preserve C<$@> I capture any errors from object destruction by creating an error stack. =head1 AUTHORS =over 4 =item * Stevan Little =item * Dave Rolsky =item * Jesse Luehrs =item * Shawn M Moore =item * יובל קוג'מן (Yuval Kogman) =item * Karen Etheridge =item * Florian Ragwitz =item * Hans Dieter Pearcey =item * Chris Prather =item * Matt S Trout =back =head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This software is copyright (c) 2006 by Infinity Interactive, Inc. This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself. =cut