Symbol(3pm)						 Perl Programmers Reference Guide					       Symbol(3pm)

NAME

       Symbol - manipulate Perl symbols and their names

SYNOPSIS

	   use Symbol;

	   $sym = gensym;
	   open($sym, "filename");
	   $_ = <$sym>;
	   # etc.

	   ungensym $sym;      # no effect

	   # replace *FOO{IO} handle but not $FOO, %FOO, etc.
	   *FOO = geniosym;

	   print qualify("x"), "
";		  # "Test::x"
	   print qualify("x", "FOO"), "
"	  # "FOO::x"
	   print qualify("BAR::x"), "
";	  # "BAR::x"
	   print qualify("BAR::x", "FOO"), "
";  # "BAR::x"
	   print qualify("STDOUT", "FOO"), "
";  # "main::STDOUT" (global)
	   print qualify(*x), "
";		  # returns *x
	   print qualify(*x, "FOO"), "
";	  # returns *x

	   use strict refs;
	   print { qualify_to_ref $fh } "foo!
";
	   $ref = qualify_to_ref $name, $pkg;

	   use Symbol qw(delete_package);
	   delete_package('Foo::Bar');
	   print "deleted
" unless exists $Foo::{'Bar::'};

DESCRIPTION

       "Symbol::gensym" creates an anonymous glob and returns a reference to it.  Such a glob reference can be used as a file or directory handle.

       For backward compatibility with older implementations that didn't support anonymous globs, "Symbol::ungensym" is also provided.	But it
       doesn't do anything.

       "Symbol::geniosym" creates an anonymous IO handle.  This can be assigned into an existing glob without affecting the non-IO portions of the
       glob.

       "Symbol::qualify" turns unqualified symbol names into qualified variable names (e.g. "myvar" -> "MyPackage::myvar").  If it is given a sec-
       ond parameter, "qualify" uses it as the default package; otherwise, it uses the package of its caller.  Regardless, global variable names
       (e.g. "STDOUT", "ENV", "SIG") are always qualified with "main::".

       Qualification applies only to symbol names (strings).  References are left unchanged under the assumption that they are glob references,
       which are qualified by their nature.

       "Symbol::qualify_to_ref" is just like "Symbol::qualify" except that it returns a glob ref rather than a symbol name, so you can use the
       result even if "use strict 'refs'" is in effect.

       "Symbol::delete_package" wipes out a whole package namespace.  Note this routine is not exported by default--you may want to import it
       explicitly.

perl v5.8.0							    2002-06-01							       Symbol(3pm)