boolean(3)

🎀 NAME 🎀

okay bestie, this is boolean(3): boolean - Boolean support for Perl. yes, the whole manual is about giving Perl some actual Boolean vibes 💅

✨ VERSION ✨

This doc describes boolean version 0.46. periodt.

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

use boolean;

do &always if true;
do &never if false;

do &maybe if boolean($value)->isTrue;

and:

use boolean ':all';

$guess = int(rand(2)) % 2 ? true : false;

do &something if isTrue($guess);
do &something_else if isFalse($guess);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Most programming languages have a native Boolean data type. Perl does not. that's the whole tea ☕

Perl has a simple and well known Truth System. The following scalar values are false:

$false1 = undef;
$false2 = 0;
$false3 = 0.0;
$false4 = '';
$false5 = '0';

Every other scalar value is true.

This module provides basic Boolean support, by defining two special objects: true and false. iconic behavior, honestly 👑

🌸 RATIONALE 🌸

When sharing data between programming languages, it is important to support the same group of basic types. In Perlish programming languages, these types include: Hash, Array, String, Number, Null and Boolean. Perl lacks native Boolean support.

Data interchange modules like YAML and JSON can now use boolean to encodedecoderoundtrip Boolean values. yes, that's literally the run-together word from the source, iykyk 😭

💖 FUNCTIONS 💖

This module defines the following functions:

true

This function returns a scalar value which will evaluate to true. The value is a singleton object, meaning there is only one true value in a Perl process at any time. You can check to see whether the value is the true object with the isTrue function described below. one true value, main character energy 👑

false

This function returns a scalar value which will evaluate to false. The value is a singleton object, meaning there is only one false value in a Perl process at any time. You can check to see whether the value is the false object with the isFalse function described below. one false value, also main character energy 💅

boolean($scalar)

Casts the scalar value to a boolean value. If $scalar is true, it returns boolean::true, otherwise it returns boolean::false.

isTrue($scalar)

Returns boolean::true if the scalar passed to it is the boolean::true object. Returns boolean::false otherwise.

isFalse($scalar)

Returns boolean::true if the scalar passed to it is the boolean::false object. Returns boolean::false otherwise.

isBoolean($scalar)

Returns boolean::true if the scalar passed to it is the boolean::true or boolean::false object. Returns boolean::false otherwise.

🫶 METHODS 🫶

Since true and false return objects, you can call methods on them.

$boolean->isTrue

Same as isTrue($boolean).

$boolean->isFalse

Same as isFalse($boolean).

🎀 USE OPTIONS 🎀

By default this module exports the true, false and boolean functions.

The module also defines these export tags:

:all

Exports true, false, boolean, isTrue, isFalse, isBoolean

💀 DEPRECATIONS 💀

⚠️ okay so this next bit is the cursed lore, bestie. This module offered an export tag, -truth, that overrides the Perl interpreter's internal values for true and false. This has been found to corrupt the interpreter in some circumstances. Also, these overrides will no longer be possible as of Perl 5.22. Therefore, the -truth import tag is deprecated.

⭐ JSON SUPPORT ⭐

JSON::MaybeXS (or less preferably JSON.pm) will encode Perl data with boolean.pm values correctly if you use the convert_blessed option:

use JSON::MaybeXS;
use boolean -truth;
my $json = JSON::MaybeXS->new->convert_blessed;
say $json->encode({false => (0 == 1)});     # Says: '{"false":false}',

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

Ingy döt Net <ingy@cpan.org>

📜 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 📜

Copyright 2007-2016. Ingy döt Net.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>.

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that's the whole page, bestie — source/version says perl v5.32.1, dated 2022-07-22 💖