NAME

Mock::Data::Util - Exportable functions to assist with declaring mock data

SYNOPSIS

use Mock::Data qw/
  uniform_set
  weighted_set
  inflate_template
  coerce_generator
  mock_data_subclass
  charset
  template
/;

DESCRIPTION

This module contains utility functions for Mock::Data. These functions can be imported from this utility module, or (more conveniently) from Mock::Data itself.

EXPORTS

Nothing is exported by default. The following functions are available:

uniform_set

$generator= uniform_set( @items )

Shortcut to create a Mock::Data::Set with uniform probability.

weighted_set

$generator= weighted_set( $item => $weight, ... )

Shortcut to "new_weighted" in Mock::Data::Set

charset

$generator= charset('A-Z');

Shortcut for "new" in Mock::Data::Charset, which takes a perl-regex-notation character set string, or list of attributes.

template

$generator= template($template_string);

Shortcut for calling "new" in Mock::Data::Template.

inflate_template

my $str_or_generator= inflate_template( $string );

This function takes a string and checks it for template substitutions, returning a Template generator if it is a valid template, and returning the string otherwise. It may also return a string if the template substitutions were just escape sequences for literal strings. Don't call inflate_template again on the output, because the escape sequences such as "{#7B}" will have been replaced by a literal "{".

coerce_generator

my $generator= coerce_generator($spec);

Returns a Mock::Data::Generator wrapping the argument. The following types are handled:

Scalar

Returns a Mock::Data::Template that performs template substitution on the string.

ARRAY ref

Returns a "uniform_set".

HASH ref

Returns a "weighted_set".

CODE ref

Returns a Mock::Data::GeneratorSub wrapping the coderef.

Regexp ref

Returns a Mock::Data::Regex generator.

$obj->can('generate')

Any object which has a generate method is returned as-is.

mock_data_subclass

my $subclass= mock_data_subclass($class, @package_names);
my $reblessed= mock_data_subclass($object, @package_names);

This method can be called on a class or instance to create a new package which inherits from the original and all packages in the list. If called on an instance, it also re-blesses the instance to the new class. All redundant items are removed from the combined list. (such as where one of the classes already inherits from one of the others).

This does not check if $package_name is loaded. That is the caller's responsibility.

AUTHOR

Michael Conrad <mike@nrdvana.net>

VERSION

version 0.04

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2024 by Michael Conrad.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.