NAME

Every - return true every N cycles or S seconds

SYNOPSIS

 for (0..200)
 {
  print_stats() if every(20);           # every 20 cycles
  print_times() if every(seconds => 5); # every 5 or more seconds
  sleep 3;
 }

FUNCTION-ORIENTED INTERFACE

every( $number [, @id] )

every( seconds => $number [, @id] )

 Returns true every $number times it's called, or every time $number
 seconds have elapsed since the last time it was called.

 The every() function keeps track of where it was called by line.  If
 you need to call it twice on the same line, e.g.

 print "hello" if every(5) or every(6);

 That won't work.  The right way is to use an identifier, e.g.

 print "hello" if every(5, "a") or every(6, "b");

 The reason is that caller() doesn't return a position, only a line
 number.

DESCRIPTION

 Returns true when the conditions (cycles or seconds elapsed) are met.

 Thanks to Dr.Ruud on comp.lang.perl.misc for helping with this idea, and to
 Jerry Hedden for cleaning it up.

BUGS

 None known.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2008, Ted Zlatanov (Теодор Златанов). All Rights Reserved. This module can be redistributed under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHOR

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>

SEE ALSO