Win32::OLE msxml collection problem

[Marcus]

This is probably a stupid questions since I'm a beginner in Win32::OLE and
Perl...
In the code below I can get the length from $members, but the next line
outputs:
"member array name: Win32::OLE=HASH(0x1825090)->Item(0)->{text}"

code:
$members = $object->getElementsByTagName("BriefDescription");
print "$members->{length}\n";
print "member array name: $members->Item(0)->{text}\n";

I don't think there's anything wrong with $members itself, since the below
will print the value I'm looking for:
foreach my $tmp (in ($members)) {
print "member name: $tmp->{text}\n";
}


Thanks!!
Marcus

 

[Jay Tilton]

: This is probably a stupid questions since I'm a beginner in Win32::OLE and
: Perl...
: In the code below I can get the length from $members, but the next line
: outputs:
: "member array name: Win32::OLE=HASH(0x1825090)->Item(0)->{text}"
:
: code:
: $members = $object->getElementsByTagName("BriefDescription");
: print "$members->{length}\n";
: print "member array name: $members->Item(0)->{text}\n";
^^^^^^^^^
Subroutine and method calls are not interpolated into double-quoted
strings.

 

[Ben Morrow]

Quite right, unless of course one dereferences the method call
and then creates a scalar reference to that with the ${ } construct,

You've got \ and ${} the wrong way round...

in which case a method call can be interpolated in double-quoted string
context, as in:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;

my $q = new CGI;
print "Not the output of the header method: $q->header()\n";
print "The output of the header method: ${ \$q->header() }\n";

However, this still calls $q->header in list context, so it would be
better to use "@{[ $q->header ]}" to make that clear (if you must use
those constructs at all).

Ben

 

[Simon Taylor]

: This is probably a stupid questions since I'm a beginner in Win32::OLE and
: In the code below I can get the length from $members, but the next line
: outputs:
: "member array name: Win32::OLE=HASH(0x1825090)->Item(0)->{text}"
:
: code:
: $members = $object->getElementsByTagName("BriefDescription");
: print "$members->{length}\n";
: print "member array name: $members->Item(0)->{text}\n";
^^^^^^^^^
Subroutine and method calls are not interpolated into double-quoted
strings.

Quite right, unless of course one dereferences the method call
and then creates a scalar reference to that with the ${ } construct,
in which case a method call can be interpolated in double-quoted string
context, as in:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;

my $q = new CGI;
print "Not the output of the header method: $q->header()\n";
print "The output of the header method: ${ \$q->header() }\n";

Simon Taylor

 

[Ben Morrow]

No, it's quite correct, run it and see...

I wasn't talking about your code, but your prose. You said 'deref the
method call and then create a scalar ref with ${}'; what you meant was
'create a scalar ref to (the result of) the method call (with \), and
then deref that with ${}'.



Ben

 

[Simon Taylor]

You've got \ and ${} the wrong way round...

No, it's quite correct, run it and see...

in which case a method call can be interpolated in double-quoted string
context, as in:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;

my $q = new CGI;
print "Not the output of the header method: $q->header()\n";
print "The output of the header method: ${ \$q->header() }\n";

However, this still calls $q->header in list context, so it would be
better to use "@{[ $q->header ]}" to make that clear (if you must use
those constructs at all).

I agree, these sort of constructs are a little on the exotic side, and
don't aid readability ;-)

All the best,