SYNOPSIS

     use Data::Dump::SortKeys qw(dump);
    
     my $sorter = do {
         require Sort::ByExample;
         Sort::ByExample::sbe(["foo", "bar", "baz"]);
     };
    
     $Data::Dump::SortKeys::SORT_KEYS = sub {
         my $hash = shift;
         $sorter->(keys %$hash);
     };
    
     $str = dump(@list);
     @copy_of_list = eval $str;
    
     # or use it for easy debug printout
     use Data::Dump::SortKeys; dd localtime;

DESCRIPTION

    An experimental fork of Data::Dump 1.23 which lets you custom sort hash
    keys and dump coderefs.

    This module provide a few functions that traverse their argument and
    produces a string as its result. The string contains Perl code that,
    when evaled, produces a deep copy of the original arguments.

    The main feature of the module is that it strives to produce output
    that is easy to read. Example:

        @a = (1, [2, 3], {4 => 5});
        dump(@a);

    Produces:

        "(1, [2, 3], { 4 => 5 })"

    If you dump just a little data, it is output on a single line. If you
    dump data that is more complex or there is a lot of it, line breaks are
    automatically added to keep it easy to read.

    The following functions are provided (only the dd* functions are
    exported by default):

    dump( ... )

    pp( ... )

      Returns a string containing a Perl expression. If you pass this
      string to Perl's built-in eval() function it should return a copy of
      the arguments you passed to dump().

      If you call the function with multiple arguments then the output will
      be wrapped in parenthesis "( ..., ... )". If you call the function
      with a single argument the output will not have the wrapping. If you
      call the function with a single scalar (non-reference) argument it
      will just return the scalar quoted if needed, but never break it into
      multiple lines. If you pass multiple arguments or references to
      arrays of hashes then the return value might contain line breaks to
      format it for easier reading. The returned string will never be "\n"
      terminated, even if contains multiple lines. This allows code like
      this to place the semicolon in the expected place:

         print '$obj = ', dump($obj), ";\n";

      If dump() is called in void context, then the dump is printed on
      STDERR and then "\n" terminated. You might find this useful for quick
      debug printouts, but the dd*() functions might be better alternatives
      for this.

      There is no difference between dump() and pp(), except that dump()
      shares its name with a not-so-useful perl builtin. Because of this
      some might want to avoid using that name.

    quote( $string )

      Returns a quoted version of the provided string.

      It differs from dump($string) in that it will quote even numbers and
      not try to come up with clever expressions that might shorten the
      output. If a non-scalar argument is provided then it's just
      stringified instead of traversed.

    dd( ... )

    ddx( ... )

      These functions will call dump() on their argument and print the
      result to STDOUT (actually, it's the currently selected output
      handle, but STDOUT is the default for that).

      The difference between them is only that ddx() will prefix the lines
      it prints with "# " and mark the first line with the file and line
      number where it was called. This is meant to be useful for debug
      printouts of state within programs.

    dumpf( ..., \&filter )

      Short hand for calling the dump_filtered() function of
      Data::Dump::Filtered. This works like dump(), but the last argument
      should be a filter callback function. As objects are visited the
      filter callback is invoked and it can modify how the objects are
      dumped.

CONFIGURATION

    There are a few global variables that can be set to modify the output
    generated by the dump functions. It's wise to localize the setting of
    these.

    $Data::Dump::SortKeys::INDENT

      This holds the string that's used for indenting multiline data
      structures. It's default value is " " (two spaces). Set it to "" to
      suppress indentation. Setting it to "| " makes for nice visuals even
      if the dump output then fails to be valid Perl.

    $Data::Dump::SortKeys::TRY_BASE64

      How long must a binary string be before we try to use the base64
      encoding for the dump output. The default is 50. Set it to 0 to
      disable base64 dumps.

    $Data::Dump::SortKeys::SORT_KEYS

      A custom hook which is called with ($hashref) when dumping a hash, to
      get the sorted hash keys. It should return a list containing the
      sorted keys.

    $Data::Dump::SortKeys::REMOVE_PRAGMAS

      If set to 1, then pragmas at the start of coderef dump will be
      removed. Coderef dump is produced by B::Deparse and is of the form
      like:

       sub { use feature 'current_sub', 'evalbytes', 'fc', 'say', 'state', 'switch', 'unicode_strings', 'unicode_eval'; $a <=> $b }

      If you want to dump short coderefs, the pragmas might be distracting.
      You can turn turn on this option which will make the above dump
      become:

       sub { $a <=> $b }

      Note that without the pragmas, the dump might be incorrect.

LIMITATIONS

    Code references will be dumped as sub { ... }. Thus, evaling them will
    not reproduce the original routine. The ...-operator used will also
    require perl-5.12 or better to be evaled.

    If you forget to explicitly import the dump function, your code will
    core dump. That's because you just called the builtin dump function by
    accident, which intentionally dumps core. Because of this you can also
    import the same function as pp, mnemonic for "pretty-print".

HISTORY

    The Data::Dump module grew out of frustration with Sarathy's
    in-most-cases-excellent Data::Dumper. Basic ideas and some code are
    shared with Sarathy's module.

    The Data::Dump module provides a much simpler interface than
    Data::Dumper. No OO interface is available and there are fewer
    configuration options to worry about. The other benefit is that the
    dump produced does not try to set any variables. It only returns what
    is needed to produce a copy of the arguments. This means that
    dump("foo") simply returns '"foo"', and dump(1..3) simply returns '(1,
    2, 3)'.

SEE ALSO

    Data::Dump::Filtered, Data::Dump::Trace, Data::Dumper, JSON, Storable

    https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=110515

Data::Dump AUTHORS

    The Data::Dump module is written by Gisle Aas <gisle@aas.no>, based on
    Data::Dumper by Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@umich.edu>.

     Copyright 1998-2010 Gisle Aas.
     Copyright 1996-1998 Gurusamy Sarathy.

    This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.