SYNOPSIS

func hello( $greeting, $place ) { say "$greeting, $place" }
my $code = \&hello;
my $signature = $code->signature;
say $signature->num_positional_params; # 2
say $signature->is_method; # false

DESCRIPTION

A Signature is a representation of what parameters a subroutine accepts. Each subroutine defined with "func" or "method" will have a signature associated with it. You can get at it by calling the "signature" method on the code reference. See ``Signature Introspection'' in perl5i for more details.

Subroutines declared with Perl's built in "sub" will have no signature.

METHODS

params

    my $params = $sig->params;

An array ref of the parameters a subroutine takes in the order it takes them. Currently they are just strings. In the future they will be string overloaded objects.

positional_params

    my $params = $sig->positional_params;

Like "$sig->params" but it is just the positional parameters.

In the future there will be named parameters.

num_positional_params

    my $num_positional_params = $sig->num_positional_params;

The number of named parameters the subroutine takes.

In the future there will be named parameters. For the purposes of determining how many arguments a function takes, it is most useful to look just at the positional ones.

This is mostly an optimization for "$sig->positional_params->size".

as_string

    my $params = $sig->as_string;

The original signature string.

invocant

    my $invocant = $sig->invocant;

The invocant is the object or class a method is called on. "invocant" will return the parameter which contains this, by default it is $self on a method, and nothing a regular subroutine.

is_method

    my $is_method = $sig->is_method;

Returns if the subroutine was declared as a method.

OVERLOADING

Signature objects are string overloaded to return "as_string". They are also always true to avoid objects taking no parameters from being confused with subroutines with no signatures.