Data::Dump - Pretty printing of data structures

- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- HISTORY
- SEE ALSO
- AUTHORS

# NAME

Data::Dump - Pretty printing of data structures

# SYNOPSIS

     use Data::Dump qw(dump);

     $str = dump(@list)
     @copy_of_list = eval $str;

# DESCRIPTION

This module provides a single function called `dump()` that takes a list of values as its argument and produces a string as its result. The string contains Perl code that, when `eval`ed, produces a deep copy of the original arguments. The string is formatted for easy reading.

If `dump()` is called in a void context, then the dump is printed on STDERR instead of being returned.

If you don't like importing a function that overrides Perl's not-so-useful builtin, then 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 no configuration options to worry about (yet :-). 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..5)` simply returns `(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)`.

# SEE ALSO

the Data::Dumper manpage, the Storable manpage

# AUTHORS

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

     Copyright 1998-2000,2003-2004 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.

Data::Dump - Pretty printing of data structures