I have two places where I use eval all the time. I think eval is the best choice in these situations, maybe someone has a better alternative (that doesn't require non-core modules).
1) retrieving stored hashes
I regularily used Data::Dumper to turn hashes into strings so they can be stored in a database for later retrieval. The string accurately represents the original hash with out my having to do a thing and it's safe to store anyway I have to, flat files, dbm, mysql. When the data is later retrieved, eval is the easiest way to get it back into a useful hash. Something like this:
use Data::Dumper;
$Data::Dumper::Indent = 0; # no spaces tabs or other fluff
$Data::Dumper::Purity = 1; # include code to recreate recursive refere
+nces
sub store_hash {
my $hash_ref = shift;
my $saved = Dumper($hash_ref);
# store $saved somewhere
}
sub get_hash {
# get $saved from somewhere
my $VAR1;
eval {$saved}
return $VAR1 ? $VAR1 : {};
}
1) wrapping DBI calls to capture errors. Far as I know this is the recommended (only?) way to do this.
sub selectrow_array { my $dbh = shift;
my $query = shift;
my @result;
eval { @result = $dbh->selectrow_array($query) };
return my_custom_error_handler("selectrow_array $query") if $@;
return @result;
}
More generically I guess you could say eval is the tool of choice when ever you have to call code beyond your control that may kill your script.
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