new

    $question = Net::DNS::Question->new('example.com', 'AAAA', 'IN');
    $question = Net::DNS::Question->new('example.com', 'A', 'IN');
    $question = Net::DNS::Question->new('example.com');

    $question = Net::DNS::Question->new('2001::DB8::dead:beef', 'PTR', 'IN');
    $question = Net::DNS::Question->new('2001::DB8::dead:beef');

Creates a question object from the domain, type, and class passed as arguments. One or both type and class arguments may be omitted and will assume the default values shown above.

RFC4291 and RFC4632 IP address/prefix notation is supported for queries in both in-addr.arpa and ip6.arpa namespaces.

decode

    $question = Net::DNS::Question->decode(\$data, $offset);

    ($question, $offset) = Net::DNS::Question->decode(\$data, $offset);

Decodes the question record at the specified location within a DNS wire-format packet. The first argument is a reference to the buffer containing the packet data. The second argument is the offset of the start of the question record.

Returns a Net::DNS::Question object and the offset of the next location in the packet.

An exception is raised if the object cannot be created (e.g., corrupt or insufficient data).

encode

    $data = $question->encode( $offset, $hash );

Returns the Net::DNS::Question in binary format suitable for inclusion in a DNS packet buffer.

The optional arguments are the offset within the packet data where the Net::DNS::Question is to be stored and a reference to a hash table used to index compressed names within the packet.

string

    print "string = ", $question->string, "\n";

Returns a string representation of the question record.

print

    $object->print;

Prints the record to the standard output. Calls the string() method to get the string representation.

name

    $name = $question->name;

Internationalised domain name corresponding to the qname attribute.

Decoding non-ASCII domain names is computationally expensive and undesirable for names which are likely to be used to construct further queries.

When required to communicate with humans, the 'proper' domain name should be extracted from a query or reply packet.

    $query = Net::DNS::Packet->new( $example, 'SOA' );
    $reply = $resolver->send($query) or die;
    ($question) = $reply->question;
    $name = $question->name;

qname, zname

    $qname = $question->qname;
    $zname = $question->zname;

Fully qualified domain name in the form required for a query transmitted to a nameserver. In dynamic update packets, this attribute is known as zname() and refers to the zone name.

qtype, ztype, type

    $qtype = $question->type;
    $qtype = $question->qtype;
    $ztype = $question->ztype;

Returns the question type attribute. In dynamic update packets, this attribute is known as ztype() and refers to the zone type.

qclass, zclass, class

    $qclass = $question->class;
    $qclass = $question->qclass;
    $zclass = $question->zclass;

Returns the question class attribute. In dynamic update packets, this attribute is known as zclass() and refers to the zone class.