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Array::Compare(3)     User Contributed Perl Documentation    Array::Compare(3)

NAME
       Array::Compare - Perl extension for comparing arrays.

SYNOPSIS
	 use Array::Compare;

	 my $comp1 = Array::Compare->new;
	 $comp->Sep('⎪');
	 $comp->Skip({3 => 1, 4 => 1});
	 $comp->WhiteSpace(0);
	 $comp->Case(1);

	 my $comp2 = Array::Compare->new(Sep => '⎪',
					 WhiteSpace => 0,
					 Case => 1,
					 Skip => {3 => 1, 4 => 1});

	 my @arr1 = 0 .. 10;
	 my @arr2 = 0 .. 10;

	 $comp1->compare(\@arr1, \@arr2);
	 $comp2->compare(\@arr1, \@arr2);

DESCRIPTION
       If you have two arrays and you want to know if they are the same or
       different, then Array::Compare will be useful to you.

       All comparisons are carried out via a comparator object. In the sim‐
       plest usage, you can create and use a comparator object like this:

	 my @arr1 = 0 .. 10;
	 my @arr2 = 0 .. 10;

	 my $comp = Array::Compare->new;

	 if ($comp->compare(\@arr1, \@arr2)) {
	   print "Arrays are the same\n";
	 } else {
	   print "Arrays are different\n";
	 }

       Notice that you pass references to the two arrays to the comparison
       method.

       Internally the comparator compares the two arrays by using "join" to
       turn both arrays into strings and comparing the strings using "eq". In
       the joined strings, the elements of the original arrays are separated
       with the "^G" character. This can cause problems if your array data
       contains "^G" characters as it is possible that two different arrays
       can be converted to the same string.

       To avoid this, it is possible to override the default separator charac‐
       ter, either by passing and alternative to the "new" function

	 my $comp = Array::Compare->new(Sep => '⎪');

       or by changing the seperator for an existing comparator object

	 $comp->Sep('⎪');

       In general you should choose a separator character that won't appear in
       your data.

       You can also control whether or not whitespace within the elements of
       the arrays should be considered significant when making the comparison.
       The default is that all whitespace is significant. The alternative is
       for all consecutive white space characters to be converted to a single
       space for the pruposes of the comparison. Again, this can be turned on
       when creating a comparator object:

	 my $comp = Array::Compare->new(WhiteSpace => 0);

       or by altering an existing object:

	 $comp->WhiteSpace(0);

       You can also control whether or not the case of the data is significant
       in the comparison. The default is that the case of data is taken into
       account. This can be changed in the standard ways when creating a new
       comparator object:

	 my $comp = Array::Compare->new(Case => 0);

       or by altering an existing object:

	 $comp->Case(0);

       In addition to the simple comparison described above (which returns
       true if the arrays are the same and false if they're different) there
       is also a full comparison which returns a list containing the indexes
       of elements which differ between the two arrays. If the arrays are the
       same it returns an empty list. In scalar context the full comparison
       returns the length of this list (i.e. the number of elements that dif‐
       fer). You can access the full comparision in two ways. Firstly, there
       is a "DefFull" attribute. If this is "true" then a full comparison if
       carried out whenever the "compare" method is called.

	 my $comp = Array::Compare->new(DefFull => 1);
	 $comp->compare(\@arr1, \@arr2); # Full comparison

	 $comp->DefFull(0);
	 $comp->compare(\@arr1, \@arr2); # Simple comparison

	 $comp->DefFull(1);
	 $comp->compare(\@arr1, \@arr2); # Full comparison again

       Secondly, you can access the full comparison method directly

	 $comp->full_compare(\@arr1, \@arr2);

       For symmetry, there is also a direct method to use to call the simple
       comparison.

	 $comp->simple_compare(\@arr1, \@arr2);

       The final complication is the ability to skip elements in the compari‐
       son.  If you know that two arrays will always differ in a particular
       element but want to compare the arrays ignoring this element, you can
       do it with Array::Compare without taking array slices. To do this, a
       comparator object has an optional attribute called "Skip" which is a
       reference to a hash. The keys in this hash are the indexes of the array
       elements and the values should be any true value for elements that
       should be skipped.

       For example, if you want to compare two arrays, ignoring the values in
       elements two and four, you can do something like this:

	 my %skip = (2 => 1, 4 => 1);
	 my @a = (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
	 my @b = (0, 1, X, 3, X, 5);

	 my $comp = Array::Compare->new(Skip => \%skip);

	 $comp->compare(\@a, \@b);

       This should return true, as we are explicitly ignoring the columns
       which differ.

       Of course, having created a comparator object with no skip hash, it is
       possible to add one later:

	 $comp->Skip({1 => 1, 2 => 1});

       or:

	 my %skip = (1 => 1, 2 => 2);
	 $comp->Skip(\%skip);

       To reset the comparator so that no longer skips elements, set the skip
       hash to an empty hash.

	 $comp->Skip({});

       You can also check to see if one array is a permutation of another,
       i.e.  they contain the same elements but in a different order.

	 if ($comp->perm(\@a, \@b) {
	   print "Arrays are perms\n";
	 else {
	   print "Nope. Arrays are completely different\n";
	 }

       In this case the values of "WhiteSpace" and "Case" are still used, but
       "Skip" is ignored for, hopefully, obvious reasons.

METHODS
       new [ %OPTIONS ]

       Constructs a new comparison object.

       Takes an optional hash containing various options that control how com‐
       parisons are carried out. Any omitted options take useful defaults.

       Sep This is the value that is used to separate fields when the array is
	   joined into a string. It should be a value which doesn't appear in
	   your data.  Default is '^G'.

       WhiteSpace
	   Flag that indicates whether or not whitespace is significant in the
	   comparison. If this value is true then all multiple whitespace
	   characters are changed into a single space before the comparison
	   takes place. Default is 1 (whitespace is significant).

       Case
	   Flag that indicates whther or not the case of the data should be
	   significant in the comparison. Default is 1 (case is significant).

       Skip
	   a reference to a hash which contains the numbers of any columns
	   that should be skipped in the comparison. Default is an empty hash
	   (all columns are significant).

       DefFull
	   Flag which indicates whether the default comparison is simple (just
	   returns true if the arrays are the same or false if they're not) or
	   full (returns an array containing the indexes of the columns that
	   differ). Default is 0 (simple comparison).

       compare_len \@ARR1, \@ARR2

       Very simple comparison. Just checks the lengths of the arrays are the
       same.

       compare \@ARR1, \@ARR2

       Compare the values in two arrays and return a data indicating whether
       the arrays are the same. The exact return values differ depending on
       the comparison method used. See the descriptions of simple_compare and
       full_compare for details.

       Uses the value of DefFull to determine which comparison routine to use.

       simple_compare \@ARR1, \@ARR2

       Compare the values in two arrays and return a flag indicating whether
       or not the arrays are the same.

       Returns true if the arrays are the same or false if they differ.

       Uses the values of 'Sep', 'WhiteSpace' and 'Skip' to influence the com‐
       parison.

       full_compare \@ARR1, \@ARR2

       Do a full comparison between two arrays.

       Checks each individual column. In scalar context returns the number of
       columns that differ (zero if the arrays are the same). In list context
       returns an list containing the indexes of the columns that differ (an
       empty list if the arrays are the same).

       Uses the values of 'Sep' and 'WhiteSpace' to influence the comparison.

       Note: If the two arrays are of different lengths then this method just
       returns the indexes of the elements that appear in one array but not
       the other (i.e. the indexes from the longer array that are beyond the
       end of the shorter array). This might be a little counter-intuitive.

       perm \@ARR1, \@ARR2

       Check to see if one array is a permutation of the other (i.e. contains
       the same set of elements, but in a different order).

       We do this by sorting the arrays and passing references to the assorted
       versions to simple_compare. There are also some small changes to sim‐
       ple_compare as it should ignore the Skip hash if we are called from
       perm.

AUTHOR
       Dave Cross <dave@mag-sol.com>

SEE ALSO
       perl(1).

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
       Copyright (C) 2000-2005, Magnum Solutions Ltd.  All Rights Reserved.

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

perl v5.8.8			  2008-06-29		     Array::Compare(3)
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