Creating constants modules

I was starting to write a constants module (and hating it) when the following funkiness sprang to mind.
This seems nicer to me than the standard way because I don't have to keep track of them in two places (in the constants pragma *and* the export list).
You can also do something like the second one if you really want to go all out.
Update: This only works with 5.8.0. 5.6.1 + earlier don't support creating multiple constants with a single use statement:(

package foo;
use base qw( Exporter );

my %constants;
use constant +{
    %constants = (
        AAA => 1,
        BBB => 2,
        CCC => 3,
        DDD => 4,
    )
};

our @EXPORT = keys %constants;

1;


package foo2;
use base qw( Exporter );

my %all;
my %foo;
my %bar;
use constant +{
    %all = (
        %foo = (
            AAA => 1,
            BBB => 2,
        ),
        %bar = (
            CCC => 3,
            DDD => 4,
        ),
    )    
};

our @EXPORT_OK = keys %all;
our %EXPORT_TAGS = (
    all => [ keys %all ],
    foo => [ keys %foo ],
    bar => [ keys %bar ],
);

1;
[download]

Comment on Creating constants modules Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
•Re: Creating constants modules by merlyn (Sage) on Oct 02, 2002 at 04:36 UTC
I've coded a slightly simpler variant of that: `package MY::Constants; my %constants = ( FRED => 2, DINO => 4, WILMA => "bb-b-b-b-uck!", LARGE => 1e38, ); sub import { for (@_) { unless (exists $constants{$_}) { require Carp; Carp::croak("Constant $_ invalid"); } { no strict 'refs'; my $full_name = caller()."::$_"; my $value = $constants{$_}; # for closure *$full_name = sub () { $value }; } } } '0 but true';` [download] Unfortunately, you lose the default import list and the other nice things with Exporter, but for quick stuff, it's nice to say: `use MY::Constants qw(FRED WILMA);` [download] -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: •Re: Creating constants modules by nite_man (Deacon) on Mar 11, 2004 at 14:05 UTC
I've been implementing the same thing - module which consists all project contstants. Your code is good but I'd like to make small addition. I guess we should shift package name from `@_` because it's passed as first parameter: `package MY::Constants; my %constants = ( FRED => 2, DINO => 4, WILMA => "bb-b-b-b-uck!", LARGE => 1e38, ); sub import { my $package = shift; for (@_) { unless (exists $constants{$_}) { require Carp; Carp::croak("Constant $_ invalid"); } { no strict 'refs'; my $full_name = caller()."::$_"; my $value = $constants{$_}; # for closure *$full_name = sub () { $value }; } } } '0 but true';` [download] ~ Schiller	[reply] [d/l] [select]


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