PPI::Node - Abstract PPI Node class, an Element that can contain other Elements
PPI::Node
isa PPI::Element
# Create a typical node (a Document in this case)
my $Node = PPI::Document->new;
# Add an element to the node( in this case, a token )
my $Token = PPI::Token::Word->new('my');
$Node->add_element( $Token );
# Get the elements for the Node
my @elements = $Node->children;
# Find all the barewords within a Node
my $barewords = $Node->find( 'PPI::Token::Word' );
# Find by more complex criteria
my $my_tokens = $Node->find( sub { $_[1]->content eq 'my' } );
# Remove all the whitespace
$Node->prune( 'PPI::Token::Whitespace' );
# Remove by more complex criteria
$Node->prune( sub { $_[1]->content eq 'my' } );
The PPI::Node
class provides an abstract base class for the Element classes that are able to contain other elements PPI::Document, PPI::Statement, and PPI::Structure.
As well as those listed below, all of the methods that apply to PPI::Element objects also apply to PPI::Node
objects.
The scope
method returns true if the node represents a lexical scope boundary, or false if it does not.
The add_element
method adds a PPI::Element object to the end of a PPI::Node
. Because Elements maintain links to their parent, an Element can only be added to a single Node.
Returns true if the PPI::Element was added. Returns undef
if the Element was already within another Node, or the method is not passed a PPI::Element object.
The elements
method accesses all child elements structurally within the PPI::Node
object. Note that in the base of the PPI::Structure classes, this DOES
include the brace tokens at either end of the structure.
Returns a list of zero or more PPI::Element objects.
Alternatively, if called in the scalar context, the elements
method returns a count of the number of elements.
The first_element
method accesses the first element structurally within the PPI::Node
object. As for the elements
method, this does include the brace tokens for PPI::Structure objects.
Returns a PPI::Element object, or undef
if for some reason the PPI::Node
object does not contain any elements.
The last_element
method accesses the last element structurally within the PPI::Node
object. As for the elements
method, this does include the brace tokens for PPI::Structure objects.
Returns a PPI::Element object, or undef
if for some reason the PPI::Node
object does not contain any elements.
The children
method accesses all child elements lexically within the PPI::Node
object. Note that in the case of the PPI::Structure classes, this does NOT include the brace tokens at either end of the structure.
Returns a list of zero of more PPI::Element objects.
Alternatively, if called in the scalar context, the children
method returns a count of the number of lexical children.
The schildren
method is really just a convenience, the significant-only variation of the normal children
method.
In list context, returns a list of significant children. In scalar context, returns the number of significant children.
The child
method accesses a child PPI::Element object by its position within the Node.
Returns a PPI::Element object, or undef
if there is no child element at that node.
The lexical structure of the Perl language ignores 'insignificant' items, such as whitespace and comments, while PPI treats these items as valid tokens so that it can reassemble the file at any time. Because of this, in many situations there is a need to find an Element within a Node by index, only counting lexically significant Elements.
The schild
method returns a child Element by index, ignoring insignificant Elements. The index of a child Element is specified in the same way as for a normal array, with the first Element at index 0, and negative indexes used to identify a "from the end" position.
The contains
method is used to determine if another PPI::Element object is logically "within" a PPI::Node
. For the special case of the brace tokens at either side of a PPI::Structure object, they are generally considered "within" a PPI::Structure object, even if they are not actually in the elements for the PPI::Structure.
Returns true if the PPI::Element is within us, false if not, or undef
on error.
The find
method is used to search within a code tree for PPI::Element objects that meet a particular condition.
To specify the condition, the method can be provided with either a simple class name (full or shortened), or a CODE
/function reference.
# Find all single quotes in a Document (which is a Node)
$Document->find('PPI::Quote::Single');
# The same thing with a shortened class name
$Document->find('Quote::Single');
# Anything more elaborate, we go with the sub
$Document->find( sub {
# At the top level of the file...
$_[1]->parent == $_[0]
and (
# ...find all comments and POD
$_[1]->isa('PPI::Token::Pod')
or
$_[1]->isa('PPI::Token::Comment')
)
} );
The function will be passed two arguments, the top-level PPI::Node
you are searching in and the current PPI::Element that the condition is testing.
The anonymous function should return one of three values. Returning true indicates a condition match, defined-false (0
or ''
) indicates no-match, and undef
indicates no-match and no-descend.
In the last case, the tree walker will skip over anything below the undef
-returning element and move on to the next element at the same level.
To halt the entire search and return undef
immediately, a condition function should throw an exception (i.e. die
).
Note that this same wanted logic is used for all methods documented to have a \&wanted
parameter, as this one does.
The find
method returns a reference to an array of PPI::Element objects that match the condition, false (but defined) if no Elements match the condition, or undef
if you provide a bad condition, or an error occurs during the search process.
In the case of a bad condition, a warning will be emitted as well.
If the normal find
method is like a grep, then find_first
is equivalent to the List::Util first
function.
Given an element class or a wanted function, it will search depth-first through a tree until it finds something that matches the condition, returning the first Element that it encounters.
See the find
method for details on the format of the search condition.
Returns the first PPI::Element object that matches the condition, false if nothing matches the condition, or undef
if given an invalid condition, or an error occurs.
The find_any
method is a short-circuiting true/false method that behaves like the normal find
method, but returns true as soon as it finds any Elements that match the search condition.
See the find
method for details on the format of the search condition.
Returns true if any Elements that match the condition can be found, false if not, or undef
if given an invalid condition, or an error occurs.
If passed a PPI::Element object that is a direct child of the Node, the remove_element
method will remove the Element
intact, along with any of its children. As such, this method acts essentially as a 'cut' function.
If successful, returns the removed element. Otherwise, returns undef
.
If successful, returns the replace element. Otherwise, returns undef
.
The prune
method is used to strip PPI::Element objects out of a code tree. The argument is the same as for the find
method, either a class name, or an anonymous subroutine which returns true/false. Any Element that matches the class|wanted will be deleted from the code tree, along with any of its children.
The prune
method returns the number of Element
objects that matched and were removed, non-recursively. This might also be zero, so avoid a simple true/false test on the return false of the prune
method. It returns undef
on error, which you probably should test for.
- Move as much as possible to PPI::XS
See the support section in the main module.
Adam Kennedy <adamk@cpan.org>
Copyright 2001 - 2011 Adam Kennedy.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.