=head1 NAME
String::Util -- String processing utilities
=head1 SYNOPSIS
use String::Util ':all';
# "crunch" whitespace and remove leading/trailing whitespace
$val = crunch($val);
# does this value have "content", i.e. it's defined
# and has something besides whitespace?
if (hascontent $val) {...}
# format for display in a web page
$val = htmlesc($val);
# format for display in a web page table cell
$val = cellfill($val);
# remove leading/trailing whitespace
$val = trim($val);
# ensure defined value
$val = define($val);
# repeat string x number of times
$val = repeat($val, $iterations);
# remove leading/trailing quotes
$val = unquote($val);
# remove all whitespace
$val = no_space($val);
# remove trailing \r and \n, regardless of what
# the OS considers an end-of-line
$val = fullchomp($val);
# or call in void context:
fullchomp $val;
# encrypt string using random seed
$val = randcrypt($val);
# are these two values equal, where two undefs count as "equal"?
if (equndef $a, $b) {...}
# are these two values different, where two undefs count as "equal"?
if (neundef $a, $b) {...}
# get a random string of some specified length
$val = randword(10);
=head1 DESCRIPTION
String::Util provides a collection of small, handy utilities for processing
strings.
=head1 INSTALLATION
String::Util can be installed with the usual routine:
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install
You can also just copy Util.pm into the String/ directory of one of your
library trees.
=head1 FUNCTIONS
=head2 crunch(string)
Crunches all whitespace in the string down to single spaces. Also removes all
leading and trailing whitespace. Undefined input results in undefined output.
=head2 hascontent(scalar), nocontent(scalar)
Returns true if the given argument contains something besides whitespace.
This function tests if the given value is defined and, if it is, if that
defined value contains something besides whitespace.
An undefined value returns false. An empty string returns false. A value
containing nothing but whitespace (spaces, tabs, carriage returns,
newlines, backspace) returns false. A string containing any other
characers (including zero) returns true.
C<nocontent()> returns the negation of C<hascontent()>.
=head2 trim(string)
Returns the string with all leading and trailing whitespace removed.
Trim on undef returns undef.
So, for example, the following code changes " my string " to "my string":
$var = " my string ";
$var = trim($var);
trim accepts two optional arguments, 'left' and 'right', both of which
are true by default. So, to avoid trimming the left side of the string,
set the 'left' argument to false:
$var = trim($var, left=>0);
To avoid trimming the right side, set 'right' to false:
$var = trim($var, right=>0);
=head2 no_space(string)
Removes all whitespace characters from the given string.
=head2 htmlesc(string)
Formats a string for literal output in HTML. An undefined value is
returned as an empty string.
htmlesc is very similar to CGI.pm's escapeHTML. If your script already
loads CGI.pm, you may well not need htmlesc. However, there are a few
differences. htmlesc changes an undefined value to an empty string, whereas
escapeHTML returns undefs as undefs.
=head2 cellfill(string)
Formats a string for literal output in an HTML table cell. Works just
like htmlesc except that strings with no content (i.e. are undef or are
just whitespace) are returns as .
=head2 jsquote($string)
Escapes and quotes a string for use in JavaScript. Escapes single quotes and
surrounds the string in single quotes. Returns the modified string.
=head2 unquote(string)
If the given string starts and ends with quotes, removes them.
Recognizes single quotes and double quotes. The value must begin
and end with same type of quotes or nothing is done to the value.
Undef input results in undef output.
B<option:> braces
If the braces option is true, surrounding braces such as [] and {} are also removed.
=head2 define(scalar)
Takes a single value as input. If the value is defined, it is
returned unchanged. If it is not defined, an empty string is returned.
This subroutine is useful for printing when an undef should simply be
represented as an empty string. Granted, Perl already treats undefs as
empty strings in string context, but this sub makes -w happy. And you
B<ARE> using -w, right?
=head2 repeat($string, $count)
Returns the given string repeated the given number of times.
=head2 randword(length, %options)
Returns a random string of characters. String will not contain any vowels (to
avoid distracting dirty words). First argument is the length of the return
string.
If the string 'dictionary' is sent instead of an integer, then a word is
randomly selected from a dictionary file. By default, the dictionary file
is assumed to be at /usr/share/dict/words and the shuf command is used to
pull out a word. The hash %String::Util::PATHS sets the paths to the
dictionary file and the shuf executable. Modify that hash to change the paths.
B<option:> alpha
If the alpha option is true, only alphabetic characters are returned, no numerals.
B<option:> numerals
If the numerals option is true, only numerals are returned, no alphabetic
characters.
B<option:> strip_vowels
This option is true by default. If true, vowels are not included in the
returned random string.
=head2 equndef($str1, $str2)
Returns true if the two given strings are equal. Also returns true if both
are undef. If only one is undef, or if they are both defined but different,
returns false.
=head2 neundef($str1, $str2)
The opposite of equndef, returns true if the two strings are *not* the same.
=head2 fullchomp(string)
Works like chomp, but is a little more thorough about removing \n's and \r's
even if they aren't part of the OS's standard end-of-line.
Undefs are returned as undefs.
=head2 randcrypt(string)
Crypts the given string, seeding the encryption with a random
two character seed.
=head2 randpost(string)
Returns a string that sorta looks like one or more paragraphs.
B<option:> word_count
Sets how many words should be in the post. By default a random number from
1 to 250 is used.
B<option:> par_odds
Sets the odds of starting a new paragraph after any given word. By default
the value is .05, which means paragraphs will have an average about twenty
words.
B<option:> par
Sets the string to put at the end or the start and end of a paragraph.
Defaults to twonelines for the end of a pargraph.
If this option is a single scalar, that string is added to the end of each
paragraph.
To set both the start and end string, use an array reference. The first
element should be the string to put at the start of a paragraph, the second
should be the string to put at the end of a paragraph.
B<option:> max_length
Sets the maximum length of the returned string, including paragraph
delimiters.
=head2 ords($string)
Returns the given string represented as the ascii value of each character.
For example, this code:
ords('Hendrix')
returns this string:
{72}{101}{110}{100}{114}{105}{120}
=head2 deords($string)
Takes the output from ords() and returns the string that original created that
output.
For example, this command:
deords('{72}{101}{110}{100}{114}{105}{120}')
returns this string:
Hendrix
=head2 crunchlines($str)
Compacts contiguous newlines into single newlines. Whitespace between newlines
is ignored, so that ntwo newlines separated by whitespace is compacted down to
a single newline.
=head1 TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Copyright (c) 2010 by Miko O'Sullivan. All rights reserved. This program is
free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms
as Perl itself. This software comes with B<NO WARRANTY> of any kind.
=head1 AUTHORS
Miko O'Sullivan
F<miko@idocs.com>
=head1 VERSION
=over 4
=item Version 0.10 December 1, 2005
Initial release
=item Version 0.11 December 22, 2005
This is a non-backwards compatible version.
urldecode, urlencode were removed entirely. All of the subs that used to
modify values in place were changed so that they do not do so anymore, except
for fullchomp.
See http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/modules/2005-12/msg00112.html
for why these changes were made.
=item Version 1.01 November 7, 2010
Decided it was time to upload five years worth of changes.
=item Version 1.20 July, 2012
Properly listing prerequisites.
=item Version 1.21 July 18, 2012
Fixed error in POD. Tightened up code for repet.
=back