Data::Dump(3)

NAME
Data::Dump - Pretty printing of data structures

SYNOPSIS
 use Data::Dump qw(dump);

 $str = dump(@list)
 @copy_of_list = eval $str;

DESCRIPTION
This module provides a single function called dump() that takes a list of values as its argument and produces a string as its result. The string contains Perl code that, when "eval"ed, produces a deep copy of the original arguments. The string is formatted for easy reading.

If dump() is called in a void context, then the dump is printed on STDERR instead of being returned.

If you don't like importing a function that overrides Perl's not-so-useful builtin, then you can also import the same function as pp(), mnemonic for "pretty-print".

HISTORY
The "Data::Dump" module grew out of frustration with Sarathy's in-most-cases-excellent "Data::Dumper". Basic ideas and some code are shared with Sarathy's module.

The "Data::Dump" module provides a much simpler interface than "Data::Dumper". No OO interface is available and there are no configuration options to worry about (yet :-). The other benefit is that the dump produced does not try to set any variables. It only returns what is needed to produce a copy of the arguments. This means that "dump("foo")" simply returns "foo", and "dump(1..5)" simply returns "(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)".

SEE ALSO
Data::Dumper, Storable

AUTHORS
The "Data::Dump" module is written by Gisle Aas <gisle@aas.no>, based on "Data::Dumper" by Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@umich.edu>.

 Copyright 1998-2000,2003-2004 Gisle Aas.
 Copyright 1996-1998 Gurusamy Sarathy.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.