Symbol(3)							     Symbol(3)

NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     Symbol - manipulate Perl symbols and their	names

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

	 use Symbol;

	 $sym =	gensym;
	 open($sym, "filename");
	 $_ = <$sym>;
	 # etc.

	 ungensym $sym;	     # no effect

	 print qualify("x"), "\n";		# "Test::x"
	 print qualify("x", "FOO"), "\n"	# "FOO::x"
	 print qualify("BAR::x"), "\n";		# "BAR::x"
	 print qualify("BAR::x", "FOO"), "\n";	# "BAR::x"
	 print qualify("STDOUT", "FOO"), "\n";	# "main::STDOUT" (global)
	 print qualify(\*x), "\n";		# returns \*x
	 print qualify(\*x, "FOO"), "\n";	# returns \*x

	 use strict refs;
	 print { qualify_to_ref	$fh } "foo!\n";
	 $ref =	qualify_to_ref $name, $pkg;

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     Symbol::gensym creates an anonymous glob and returns a reference to it.
     Such a glob reference can be used as a file or directory handle.

     For backward compatibility	with older implementations that	didn't support
     anonymous globs, Symbol::ungensym is also provided.  But it doesn't do
     anything.

     Symbol::qualify turns unqualified symbol names into qualified variable
     names (e.g. "myvar" -> "MyPackage::myvar").  If it	is given a second
     parameter,	qualify	uses it	as the default package;	otherwise, it uses the
     package of	its caller.  Regardless, global	variable names (e.g. "STDOUT",
     "ENV", "SIG") are always qualfied with "main::".

     Qualification applies only	to symbol names	(strings).  References are
     left unchanged under the assumption that they are glob references,	which
     are qualified by their nature.

     Symbol::qualify_to_ref is just like Symbol::qualify except	that it
     returns a glob ref	rather than a symbol name, so you can use the result
     even if use strict	'refs' is in effect.








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Symbol(3)							     Symbol(3)


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