MakeMethods::Utility::Ref(3pm)				User Contributed Perl Documentation			    MakeMethods::Utility::Ref(3pm)

NAME

       Class::MakeMethods::Utility::Ref - Deep copying and comparison

SYNOPSIS

	 use Class::MakeMethods::Utility::Ref qw( ref_clone ref_compare );

	 $deep_copy = ref_clone( $original );
	 $positive_zero_or_negative = ref_compare( $item_a, $item_b );

DESCRIPTION

       This module provides utility functions to copy and compare arbitrary references, including full traversal of nested data structures.

   REFERENCE
       The following functions are provided:

   ref_clone()
       Make a recursive copy of a reference.

   ref_compare()
       Attempt to recursively compare two references.

       If they are not the same, try to be consistent about returning a positive or negative number so that it can be used for sorting.  The sort
       order is kinda arbitrary.

SEE ALSO

       See Class::MakeMethods for general information about this distribution.

       See Ref for the original version of the clone and compare functions used above.

       See Clone (v0.09 on CPAN as of 2000-09-21) for a clone method with an XS implementation.

       The Perl6 RFP #67 proposes including clone functionality in the core.

       See Data::Compare (v0.01 on CPAN as of 1999-04-24) for a Compare method which checks two references for similarity, but it does not provide
       positive/negative values for ordering purposes.

perl v5.10.1							    2004-09-06					    MakeMethods::Utility::Ref(3pm)