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Author image David Lloyd


enum::fields - Perl extension for defining constants for use in Array-based objects


  package Foo;
  use enum::fields qw{
  package Bar;
  use base 'Foo';
  use enum::fields::extending Foo => qw{


This module allows you to define constants that can be inherited and extended by child classes. It is used much like a simple form of enum to define constants, with the exception that you can inherit a list of constants from a parent class using the "extending" form of the pragma.

This module was designed to allow an object-oriented programmer to use an array to store instance data for object classes.

Since I'm a lousy doc writer I'll get right to the examples.

Example 1 - Parent Class

  package Employee;
  use enum::fields qw{NAME PHONE SALARY};
  sub new {
      my $class = shift;
      my $self = bless [], $class;

      $self->[NAME] = shift;
      $self->[PHONE] = shift;
      $self->[SALARY] = shift;
  sub salary {
      my $self = shift;
      $self->[SALARY] = shift if (@_);

This example shows a simple employee object. It holds the employee's name, phone, and salary information. The constructor for this class, aptly named 'new', creates a new employee and assigns the three arguments passed in to the NAME, PHONE, and SALARY fields (whose values, not-so-coincidentally, are 0, 1, and 2). Since this is actually an array storage, it is nice and fast.

Example 2 - Subclassing without adding fields

  package Employee::CoffeeBoy;
  use Carp;
  use base 'Employee';
  use enum::fields::extending 'Employee';

  sub salary {
      my $self = shift;
      if (@_) {
          $salary = shift;
          if ($salary > 8_000.00) {
              croak "Attept to overpay coffee boy";
          $self->[SALARY] = $salary;

This example shows a subclass that inherits from Employee. Using the enum::fields::extending pragma causes the fields from the parent class to be brought into the child class. Therefore we are able to override the salary method.

Example 3 - Subclassing with adding fields

  package Employee::CEO;
  use base 'Employee';
  use enum::fields::extending Employee => qw{
  sub boats {
      my $self = shift;
      $self->[NUMBER_OF_BOATS] = shift if (@_);

This class shows that we can inherit the fields from a parent, and then add another field onto the end of the list. Behind the scenes, the new field is numbered after those from the parent class, so that the inherited fields and the new fields will not collide.


You cannot add fields to a class after another class has inherited its fields. Attempting to do so will result in a compile-time error.

Trying to extend fields from more than one class (ala multiple inheritance) will not work. For a different (arguably better) solution, see Class::Delegate.


enum, fields.


David M. Lloyd <dmlloyd@cpan.org>


Copyright (C) 2002 by David M. Lloyd
