checking from a module if a sub exists in main::

tune has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dear M0nX!

Recently I had to touch an old module, which is a general purpose database table row viewer/inserter/updater/deleter.
The behaviour of this module can be set up by exported hashes, and variables. It has a delete function which is deleting a row from the DB table. I wanted to add some functionality to its behaviour, but only for one table. So i added a new subroutine to the script that uses the module, and set up another exported variable to tell the module it can call the sub from the script.
But I feel it is very weak. First of all there is already too much exported variables, I don't want to follow the original authors stupid practice, and I would like to have elegant code. I would like to check from the module if the subroutine is existing in the caller namespace. Or at least in main namespace.
Is that possible? Thanks for any ideas.

--
tune

Comment on checking from a module if a sub exists in main::

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Re: checking from a module if a sub exists in main:: by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Nov 20, 2001 at 01:54 UTC
`my $package = 'main'; my $function = 'foo'; { no strict 'refs'; if (defined &{$package.'::'$function}) { print "$function is defined in $package\n"; } }` [download] ------ We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age. Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.	[reply] [d/l]
(Ovid) Re: checking from a module if a sub exists in main:: by Ovid (Cardinal) on Nov 20, 2001 at 01:57 UTC
In addition to dragonchild's response, you can use caller to determine the calling namespace: `my $calling_namespace = caller(0);` [download] Cheers, Ovid Join the Perlmonks Setiathome Group or just click on the the link and check out our stats.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: checking from a module if a sub exists in main:: by premchai21 (Curate) on Nov 20, 2001 at 02:55 UTC
A better idea would be to do something like this: `package Foo; use vars qw/$delHook/; $delHook = undef;` [download] Export $delHook if you like. Then, in the main script: `$Foo::delHook = \&somehook; # or just $delHook if exported` [download] will set $delHook; in the module, when you need to call the sub: `$delHook->(any_arguments_here) if defined $delHook;` [download] That way, rather than being restricted to calling a sub with a particular name, you call the subroutine by having a reference to it (which is what the \ does; the & is just to specify that it's the method and not something else). Note that the call will not occur if no delHook was set.	[reply] [d/l] [select]


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