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.\" ========================================================================
.\"
.IX Title "PERLDBMFILTER 1"
.TH PERLDBMFILTER 1 "2002-11-24" "perl v5.8.0" "Perl Programmers Reference Guide"
.SH "NAME"
perldbmfilter \- Perl DBM Filters
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
.Vb 1
\&    $db = tie %hash, 'DBM', ...
.Ve
.PP
.Vb 4
\&    $old_filter = $db->filter_store_key  ( sub { ... } ) ;
\&    $old_filter = $db->filter_store_value( sub { ... } ) ;
\&    $old_filter = $db->filter_fetch_key  ( sub { ... } ) ;
\&    $old_filter = $db->filter_fetch_value( sub { ... } ) ;
.Ve
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
The four \f(CW\*(C`filter_*\*(C'\fR methods shown above are available in all the \s-1DBM\s0
modules that ship with Perl, namely DB_File, GDBM_File, NDBM_File,
ODBM_File and SDBM_File.
.PP
Each of the methods work identically, and are used to install (or
uninstall) a single \s-1DBM\s0 Filter. The only difference between them is the
place that the filter is installed.
.PP
To summarise:
.IP "\fBfilter_store_key\fR" 5
.IX Item "filter_store_key"
If a filter has been installed with this method, it will be invoked
every time you write a key to a \s-1DBM\s0 database.
.IP "\fBfilter_store_value\fR" 5
.IX Item "filter_store_value"
If a filter has been installed with this method, it will be invoked
every time you write a value to a \s-1DBM\s0 database.
.IP "\fBfilter_fetch_key\fR" 5
.IX Item "filter_fetch_key"
If a filter has been installed with this method, it will be invoked
every time you read a key from a \s-1DBM\s0 database.
.IP "\fBfilter_fetch_value\fR" 5
.IX Item "filter_fetch_value"
If a filter has been installed with this method, it will be invoked
every time you read a value from a \s-1DBM\s0 database.
.PP
You can use any combination of the methods from none to all four.
.PP
All filter methods return the existing filter, if present, or \f(CW\*(C`undef\*(C'\fR
in not.
.PP
To delete a filter pass \f(CW\*(C`undef\*(C'\fR to it.
.Sh "The Filter"
.IX Subsection "The Filter"
When each filter is called by Perl, a local copy of \f(CW$_\fR will contain
the key or value to be filtered. Filtering is achieved by modifying
the contents of \f(CW$_\fR. The return code from the filter is ignored.
.Sh "An Example \*(-- the \s-1NULL\s0 termination problem."
.IX Subsection "An Example  the NULL termination problem."
\&\s-1DBM\s0 Filters are useful for a class of problems where you \fIalways\fR
want to make the same transformation to all keys, all values or both.
.PP
For example, consider the following scenario. You have a \s-1DBM\s0 database
that you need to share with a third-party C application. The C application
assumes that \fIall\fR keys and values are \s-1NULL\s0 terminated. Unfortunately
when Perl writes to \s-1DBM\s0 databases it doesn't use \s-1NULL\s0 termination, so
your Perl application will have to manage \s-1NULL\s0 termination itself. When
you write to the database you will have to use something like this:
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    $hash{"$key\e0"} = "$value\e0" ;
.Ve
.PP
Similarly the \s-1NULL\s0 needs to be taken into account when you are considering
the length of existing keys/values.
.PP
It would be much better if you could ignore the \s-1NULL\s0 terminations issue
in the main application code and have a mechanism that automatically
added the terminating \s-1NULL\s0 to all keys and values whenever you write to
the database and have them removed when you read from the database. As I'm
sure you have already guessed, this is a problem that \s-1DBM\s0 Filters can
fix very easily.
.PP
.Vb 4
\&    use strict ;
\&    use warnings ;
\&    use SDBM_File ;
\&    use Fcntl ;
.Ve
.PP
.Vb 3
\&    my %hash ;
\&    my $filename = "/tmp/filt" ;
\&    unlink $filename ;
.Ve
.PP
.Vb 2
\&    my $db = tie(%hash, 'SDBM_File', $filename, O_RDWR|O_CREAT, 0640)
\&      or die "Cannot open $filename: $!\en" ;
.Ve
.PP
.Vb 6
\&    # Install DBM Filters
\&    $db->filter_fetch_key  ( sub { s/\e0$//    } ) ;
\&    $db->filter_store_key  ( sub { $_ .= "\e0" } ) ;
\&    $db->filter_fetch_value( 
\&        sub { no warnings 'uninitialized' ;s/\e0$// } ) ;
\&    $db->filter_store_value( sub { $_ .= "\e0" } ) ;
.Ve
.PP
.Vb 5
\&    $hash{"abc"} = "def" ;
\&    my $a = $hash{"ABC"} ;
\&    # ...
\&    undef $db ;
\&    untie %hash ;
.Ve
.PP
The code above uses SDBM_File, but it will work with any of the \s-1DBM\s0
modules.
.PP
Hopefully the contents of each of the filters should be
self\-explanatory. Both \*(L"fetch\*(R" filters remove the terminating \s-1NULL\s0,
and both \*(L"store\*(R" filters add a terminating \s-1NULL\s0.
.Sh "Another Example \*(-- Key is a C int."
.IX Subsection "Another Example  Key is a C int."
Here is another real-life example. By default, whenever Perl writes to
a \s-1DBM\s0 database it always writes the key and value as strings. So when
you use this:
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    $hash{12345} = "something" ;
.Ve
.PP
the key 12345 will get stored in the \s-1DBM\s0 database as the 5 byte string
\&\*(L"12345\*(R". If you actually want the key to be stored in the \s-1DBM\s0 database
as a C int, you will have to use \f(CW\*(C`pack\*(C'\fR when writing, and \f(CW\*(C`unpack\*(C'\fR
when reading.
.PP
Here is a \s-1DBM\s0 Filter that does it:
.PP
.Vb 6
\&    use strict ;
\&    use warnings ;
\&    use DB_File ;
\&    my %hash ;
\&    my $filename = "/tmp/filt" ;
\&    unlink $filename ;
.Ve
.PP
.Vb 2
\&    my $db = tie %hash, 'DB_File', $filename, O_CREAT|O_RDWR, 0666, $DB_HASH 
\&      or die "Cannot open $filename: $!\en" ;
.Ve
.PP
.Vb 6
\&    $db->filter_fetch_key  ( sub { $_ = unpack("i", $_) } ) ;
\&    $db->filter_store_key  ( sub { $_ = pack ("i", $_) } ) ;
\&    $hash{123} = "def" ;
\&    # ...
\&    undef $db ;
\&    untie %hash ;
.Ve
.PP
The code above uses DB_File, but again it will work with any of the
\&\s-1DBM\s0 modules.
.PP
This time only two filters have been used \*(-- we only need to manipulate
the contents of the key, so it wasn't necessary to install any value
filters.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IX Header "SEE ALSO"
DB_File, GDBM_File, NDBM_File, ODBM_File and SDBM_File.
.SH "AUTHOR"
.IX Header "AUTHOR"
Paul Marquess