NAME

    String::Util -- String processing utilities

SYNOPSIS

      use String::Util ':all';
    
      # "crunch" whitespace and remove leading/trailing whitespace
      $val = crunch($val);
    
      # does this value have "content", i.e. it's defined
      # and has something besides whitespace?
      if (hascontent $val) {...}
    
      # format for display in a web page
      $val = htmlesc($val);
    
      # format for display in a web page table cell
      $val = cellfill($val);
    
      # remove leading/trailing whitespace
      $val = trim($val);
    
      # ensure defined value
      $val = define($val);
    
      # repeat string x number of times
      $val = repeat($val, $iterations);
    
      # remove leading/trailing quotes
      $val = unquote($val);
    
      # remove all whitespace
      $val = no_space($val);
    
      # remove trailing \r and \n, regardless of what
      # the OS considers an end-of-line
      $val = fullchomp($val);
    
      # or call in void context:
      fullchomp $val;
    
      # encrypt string using random seed
      $val = randcrypt($val);
    
      # are these two values equal, where two undefs count as "equal"?
      if (eqq $a, $b) {...}
    
      # are these two values different, where two undefs count as "equal"?
      if (neqq $a, $b) {...}
    
      # get a random string of some specified length
      $val = randword(10);

DESCRIPTION

    String::Util provides a collection of small, handy utilities for
    processing strings.

INSTALLATION

    String::Util can be installed with the usual routine:

     perl Makefile.PL
     make
     make test
     make install

FUNCTIONS

 collapse(string), crunch(string)

    collapse() collapses all whitespace in the string down to single
    spaces. Also removes all leading and trailing whitespace. Undefined
    input results in undefined output.

    crunch() is the old name for collapse(). I decided that "crunch" never
    sounded right. Spaces don't go "crunch", they go "poof" like a
    collapsing ballon. However, crunch() will continue to work as an alias
    for collapse().

 hascontent(scalar), nocontent(scalar)

    hascontent() returns true if the given argument is defined and contains
    something besides whitespace.

    An undefined value returns false. An empty string returns false. A
    value containing nothing but whitespace (spaces, tabs, carriage
    returns, newlines, backspace) returns false. A string containing any
    other characters (including zero) returns true.

    nocontent() returns the negation of hascontent().

 trim(string)

    Returns the string with all leading and trailing whitespace removed.
    Trim on undef returns undef.

    So, for example, the following code changes " my string " to "my
    string":

     $var = " my string  ";
     $var = trim($var);

    trim accepts two optional arguments, 'left' and 'right', both of which
    are true by default. So, to avoid trimming the left side of the string,
    set the 'left' argument to false:

     $var = trim($var, left=>0);

    To avoid trimming the right side, set 'right' to false:

     $var = trim($var, right=>0);

 ltrim, rtrim

    ltrim trims leading whitespace. rtrim trims trailing whitespace. They
    are exactly equivalent to

     trim($var, left=>0);

    and

     trim($var, right=>0);

 no_space(string)

    Removes all whitespace characters from the given string.

 htmlesc(string)

    Formats a string for literal output in HTML. An undefined value is
    returned as an empty string.

    htmlesc() is very similar to CGI.pm's escapeHTML. However, there are a
    few differences. htmlesc() changes an undefined value to an empty
    string, whereas escapeHTML() returns undefs as undefs.

 cellfill(string)

    Formats a string for literal output in an HTML table cell. Works just
    like htmlesc() except that strings with no content (i.e. are undef or
    are just whitespace) are returned as &nbsp;.

 jsquote($string)

    Escapes and quotes a string for use in JavaScript. Escapes single
    quotes and surrounds the string in single quotes. Returns the modified
    string.

 unquote(string)

    If the given string starts and ends with quotes, removes them.
    Recognizes single quotes and double quotes. The value must begin and
    end with same type of quotes or nothing is done to the value. Undef
    input results in undef output. Some examples and what they return:

     unquote(q|'Hendrix'|);   # Hendrix
     unquote(q|"Hendrix"|);   # Hendrix
     unquote(q|Hendrix|);     # Hendrix
     unquote(q|"Hendrix'|);   # "Hendrix'
     unquote(q|O'Sullivan|);  # O'Sullivan

    option: braces

    If the braces option is true, surrounding braces such as [] and {} are
    also removed. Some examples:

     unquote(q|[Janis]|, braces=>1);  # Janis
     unquote(q|{Janis}|, braces=>1);  # Janis
     unquote(q|(Janis)|, braces=>1);  # Janis

 define(scalar)

    Takes a single value as input. If the value is defined, it is returned
    unchanged. If it is not defined, an empty string is returned.

    This subroutine is useful for printing when an undef should simply be
    represented as an empty string. Perl already treats undefs as empty
    strings in string context, but this subroutine makes the warnings
    module <http://perldoc.perl.org/warnings.html> go away. And you ARE
    using warnings, right?

 repeat($string, $count)

    Returns the given string repeated the given number of times. The
    following command outputs "Fred" three times:

     print repeat('Fred', 3), "\n";

    Note that repeat() was created a long time based on a misunderstanding
    of how the perl operator 'x' works. The following command using 'x'
    would perform exactly the same as the above command.

     print 'Fred' x 3, "\n";

    Use whichever you prefer.

 randword(length, %options)

    Returns a random string of characters. String will not contain any
    vowels (to avoid distracting dirty words). First argument is the length
    of the return string. So this code:

     foreach my $idx (1..3) {
       print randword(4), "\n";
     }

    would output something like this:

     kBGV
     NCWB
     3tHJ

    If the string 'dictionary' is sent instead of an integer, then a word
    is randomly selected from a dictionary file. By default, the dictionary
    file is assumed to be at /usr/share/dict/words and the shuf command is
    used to pull out a word. The hash %String::Util::PATHS sets the paths
    to the dictionary file and the shuf executable. Modify that hash to
    change the paths. So this code:

     foreach my $idx (1..3) {
       print randword('dictionary'), "\n";
     }

    would output something like this:

     mustache
     fronds
     browning

    option: alpha

    If the alpha option is true, only alphabetic characters are returned,
    no numerals. For example, this code:

     foreach my $idx (1..3) {
       print randword(4, alpha=>1), "\n";
     }

    would output something like this:

     qrML
     wmWf
     QGvF

    option: numerals

    If the numerals option is true, only numerals are returned, no
    alphabetic characters. So this code:

     foreach my $idx (1..3) {
       print randword(4, numerals=>1), "\n";
     }

    would output something like this:

     3981
     4734
     2657

    option: strip_vowels

    This option is true by default. If true, vowels are not included in the
    returned random string. So this code:

     foreach my $idx (1..3) {
       print randword(4, strip_vowels=>1), "\n";
      }

    would output something like this:

     Sk3v
     pV5z
     XhSX

 eqq($val1, $val2)

    Returns true if the two given values are equal. Also returns true if
    both are undef. If only one is undef, or if they are both defined but
    different, returns false. Here are some examples and what they return.

     eqq('x', 'x'), "\n";      # 1
     eqq('x', undef), "\n";    # 0
     eqq(undef, undef), "\n";  # 1

 neqq($str1, $str2)

    The opposite of neqq, returns true if the two values are *not* the
    same. Here are some examples and what they return.

     print neqq('x', 'x'), "\n";      # 0
     print neqq('x', undef), "\n";    # 1
     print neqq(undef, undef), "\n";  # 0

 equndef(), neundef()

    equndef() has been renamed to eqq(). neundef() has been renamed to
    neqq(). Those old names have been kept as aliases.

 fullchomp(string)

    Works like chomp, but is a little more thorough about removing \n's and
    \r's even if they aren't part of the OS's standard end-of-line.

    Undefs are returned as undefs.

 randcrypt(string)

    Crypts the given string, seeding the encryption with a random two
    character seed.

 randpost(%opts)

    Returns a string that sorta looks like one or more paragraphs.

    option: word_count

    Sets how many words should be in the post. By default a random number
    from 1 to 250 is used.

    option: par_odds

    Sets the odds of starting a new paragraph after any given word. By
    default the value is .05, which means paragraphs will have an average
    about twenty words.

    option: par

    Sets the string to put at the end or the start and end of a paragraph.
    Defaults to two newlines for the end of a pargraph.

    If this option is a single scalar, that string is added to the end of
    each paragraph.

    To set both the start and end string, use an array reference. The first
    element should be the string to put at the start of a paragraph, the
    second should be the string to put at the end of a paragraph.

    option: max_length

    Sets the maximum length of the returned string, including paragraph
    delimiters.

 ords($string)

    Returns the given string represented as the ascii value of each
    character.

    For example, this code:

     ords('Hendrix')

    returns this string:

     {72}{101}{110}{100}{114}{105}{120}

    options

      * convert_spaces=>[true|false]

      If convert_spaces is true (which is the default) then spaces are
      converted to their matching ord values. So, for example, this code:

       ords('a b', convert_spaces=>1)

      returns this:

      {97}{32}{98}

      This code returns the same thing:

       ords('a b')

      If convert_spaces is false, then spaces are just returned as spaces.
      So this code:

       ords('a b', convert_spaces=>0);

      returns

       {97} {98}

      * alpha_nums

      If the alpha_nums option is false, then characters 0-9, a-z, and A-Z
      are not converted. For example, this code:

       ords('a=b', alpha_nums=>0)

      returns this:

       a{61}b

 deords($string)

    Takes the output from ords() and returns the string that original
    created that output.

    For example, this command:

     deords('{72}{101}{110}{100}{114}{105}{120}')

    returns this string: Hendrix

 crunchlines($str)

    Compacts contiguous newlines into single newlines. Whitespace between
    newlines is ignored, so that two newlines separated by whitespace is
    compacted down to a single newline.

    For example, this code:

     crunchlines("x\n\n\nx")

    outputs two x's with a single empty line between them:

     x
    
     x

 spacepad

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

    Copyright (c) 2012-2016 by Miko O'Sullivan. All rights reserved. This
    program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself. This software comes with NO
    WARRANTY of any kind.

AUTHORS

    Miko O'Sullivan miko@idocs.com

VERSION

    Version 0.10, December 1, 2005

      Initial release

    Version 0.11, December 22, 2005

      This is a non-backwards compatible version.

      urldecode, urlencode were removed entirely. All of the subs that used
      to modify values in place were changed so that they do not do so
      anymore, except for fullchomp.

      See
      http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/modules/2005-12/msg00112.htm
      l for why these changes were made.

    Version 1.01, November 7, 2010

      Decided it was time to upload five years worth of changes.

    Version 1.20, July, 2012

      Properly listing prerequisites.

    Version 1.21, July 18, 2012

      Fixed error in POD.

    Version 1.22, July 20, 2012

      Fix in documentation for randpost().

      Clarified documentation for hascontent() and nocontent().

    Version 1.23, Sep 1, 2012

      Fixed error in META.yml.

    Version 1.24, December 31, 2014

      Cleaned up POD formatting.

      Changed file to using Unixish style newlines. I hadn't realized until
      now that it was using Windowish newline. How embarrasing.

      Added some features to ords().

    Version 1.25, January 4, 2015

      Added parentheses to braces option for unquote. Cleaned up and added
      to POD. Minor fixes to comments.

      Renamed equndef to eqq, and neundef to neqq. However, the old names
      have been kept as aliases.

      Minor cleanup of formatting.

