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Class::Null(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Class::Null(3)

Class::Null - Implements the Null Class design pattern

version 2.110730

  use Class::Null;

  # some class constructor and accessor declaration here

  sub init {
    my $self = shift;
    # ...
    $self->log(Class::Null->new);
    # ...
  }

  sub do_it {
    my $self = shift;
    $self->log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'starting to do it');
    # ...
    $self->log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'still doing it');
    # ...
    $self->log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'finished doing it');
  }

This class implements the Null Class design pattern.

Suppose that methods in your object want to write log messages to a log object. The log object is possibly stored in a slot in your object and can be accessed using an accessor method:

  package MyObject;

  use base 'Class::Accessor';
  __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors(qw(log));

  sub do_it {
    my $self = shift;
    $self->log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'starting to do it');
    ...
    $self->log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'still doing it');
    ...
    $self->log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'finished doing it');
  }

The log object simply needs to have a "log()" method that accepts two named parameters. Any class defining such a method will do, and "Log::Dispatch" fulfills that requirement while providing a lot of flexibility and reusability in handling the logged messages.

You might want to log messages to a file:

  use Log::Dispatch;

  my $dispatcher = Log::Dispatch->new;

  $dispatcher->add(Log::Dispatch::File->new(
    name      => 'file1',
    min_level => 'debug',
    filename  => 'logfile'));

  my $obj = MyObject->new(log => $dispatcher);
  $obj->do_it;

But what happens if we don't define a log object? Your object's methods would have to check whether a log object is defined before calling the "log()" method. This leads to lots of unwieldy code like

  sub do_it {
    my $self = shift;
    if (defined (my $log = $self->log)) {
      $log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'starting to do it');
    }
    ...
    if (defined (my $log = $self->log)) {
      $log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'still doing it');
    }
    ...
    if (defined (my $log = $self->log)) {
      $log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'finished doing it');
    }
  }

The proliferation of if-statements really distracts from the actual call to "log()" and also distracts from the rest of the method code. There is a better way. We can ensure that there is always a log object that we can call "log()" on, even if it doesn't do very much (or in fact, anything at all).

This object with null functionality is what is called a null object. We can create the object the usual way, using the "new()" constructor, and call any method on it, and all methods will do the same - nothing. (Actually, it always returns the same "Class::Null" singleton object, enabling method chaining.) It's effectively a catch-all object. We can use this class with our own object like this:

  package MyObject;

  use Class::Null;

  # some class constructor and accessor declaration here

  sub init {
    my $self = shift;
    ...
    $self->log(Class::Null->new);
    ...
  }

  sub do_it {
    my $self = shift;
    $self->log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'starting to do it');
    ...
    $self->log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'still doing it');
    ...
    $self->log->log(level => 'debug', message => 'finished doing it');
  }

This is only one example of using a null class, but it can be used whenever you want to make an optional helper object into a mandatory helper object, thereby avoiding unnecessarily complicated checks and preserving the transparency of how your objects are related to each other and how they call each other.

Although "Class::Null" is exceedingly simple it has been made into a distribution and put on CPAN to avoid further clutter and repetitive definitions.

Returns the singleton null object.

Returns another singleton null object so method chaining works.

Boolean context
In boolean context, a null object always evaluates to false.
Numeric context
When used as a number, a null object always evaluates to 0.
String context
When stringified, a null object always evaluates to the empty string.

See perlmodinstall for information and options on installing Perl modules.

No bugs have been reported.

Please report any bugs or feature requests through the web interface at <http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Class-Null>.

The latest version of this module is available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Visit <http://www.perl.com/CPAN/> to find a CPAN site near you, or see <http://search.cpan.org/dist/Class-Null/>.

The development version lives at <http://github.com/hanekomu/Class-Null> and may be cloned from <git://github.com/hanekomu/Class-Null.git>. Instead of sending patches, please fork this project using the standard git and github infrastructure.

Marcel Gruenauer <marcel@cpan.org>

This software is copyright (c) 2005 by Marcel Gruenauer.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

2011-03-14 perl v5.32.1

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