check( \%tmpl, \%args, [$verbose] );¶

This function is not exported by default, so you'll have to ask for it via:

    use Params::Check qw[check];

or use its fully qualified name instead.

"check" takes a list of arguments, as follows:

Template

This is a hash reference which contains a template as explained in the "SYNOPSIS" and "Template" section.

Arguments

This is a reference to a hash of named arguments which need checking.

Verbose

A boolean to indicate whether "check" should be verbose and warn about what went wrong in a check or not.

You can enable this program wide by setting the package variable $Params::Check::VERBOSE to a true value. For details, see the section on "Global Variables" below.

"check" will return when it fails, or a hashref with lowercase keys of parsed arguments when it succeeds.

So a typical call to check would look like this:

    my $parsed = check( \%template, \%arguments, $VERBOSE )
                    or warn q[Arguments could not be parsed!];

A lot of the behaviour of check() can be altered by setting package variables. See the section on "Global Variables" for details on this.

allow( $test_me, \@criteria );¶

The function that handles the "allow" key in the template is also available for independent use.

The function takes as first argument a key to test against, and as second argument any form of criteria that are also allowed by the "allow" key in the template.

You can use the following types of values for allow:

string

The provided argument MUST be equal to the string for the validation to pass.

regexp

The provided argument MUST match the regular expression for the validation to pass.

subroutine

The provided subroutine MUST return true in order for the validation to pass and the argument accepted.

(This is particularly useful for more complicated data).

array ref

The provided argument MUST equal one of the elements of the array ref for the validation to pass. An array ref can hold all the above values.

It returns true if the key matched the criteria, or false otherwise.

last_error()¶

Returns a string containing all warnings and errors reported during the last time "check" was called.

This is useful if you want to report then some other way than "carp"'ing when the verbose flag is on.

It is exported upon request.

$Params::Check::VERBOSE¶

This controls whether Params::Check will issue warnings and explanations as to why certain things may have failed. If you set it to 0, Params::Check will not output any warnings.

The default is 1 when warnings are enabled, 0 otherwise;

$Params::Check::STRICT_TYPE¶

This works like the "strict_type" option you can pass to "check", which will turn on "strict_type" globally for all calls to "check".

The default is 0;

$Params::Check::ALLOW_UNKNOWN¶

If you set this flag, unknown options will still be present in the return value, rather than filtered out. This is useful if your subroutine is only interested in a few arguments, and wants to pass the rest on blindly to perhaps another subroutine.

The default is 0;

$Params::Check::STRIP_LEADING_DASHES¶

If you set this flag, all keys passed in the following manner:

    function( -key => 'val' );

will have their leading dashes stripped.

$Params::Check::NO_DUPLICATES¶

If set to true, all keys in the template that are marked as to be stored in a scalar, will also be removed from the result set.

Default is false, meaning that when you use "store" as a template key, "check" will put it both in the scalar you supplied, as well as in the hashref it returns.

$Params::Check::PRESERVE_CASE¶

If set to true, Params::Check will no longer convert all keys from the user input to lowercase, but instead expect them to be in the case the template provided. This is useful when you want to use similar keys with different casing in your templates.

Understand that this removes the case-insensitivity feature of this module.

Default is 0;

$Params::Check::ONLY_ALLOW_DEFINED¶

If set to true, Params::Check will require all values passed to be "defined". If you wish to enable this on a 'per key' basis, use the template option "defined" instead.

Default is 0;

$Params::Check::SANITY_CHECK_TEMPLATE¶

If set to true, Params::Check will sanity check templates, validating for errors and unknown keys. Although very useful for debugging, this can be somewhat slow in hot-code and large loops.

To disable this check, set this variable to "false".

Default is 1;

$Params::Check::WARNINGS_FATAL¶

If set to true, Params::Check will "croak" when an error during template validation occurs, rather than return "false".

Default is 0;

$Params::Check::CALLER_DEPTH¶

This global modifies the argument given to caller() by Params::Check::check() and is useful if you have a custom wrapper function around Params::Check::check(). The value must be an integer, indicating the number of wrapper functions inserted between the real function call and Params::Check::check().

Example wrapper function, using a custom stacktrace:

    sub check {
        my ($template, $args_in) = @_;
        local $Params::Check::WARNINGS_FATAL = 1;
        local $Params::Check::CALLER_DEPTH = $Params::Check::CALLER_DEPTH + 1;
        my $args_out = Params::Check::check($template, $args_in);
        my_stacktrace(Params::Check::last_error) unless $args_out;
        return $args_out;
    }

Default is 0;