Closures are like objects, but with only one method. Here is a way that sort of gets around that limitation. This example is pretty bland, but you get the idea (exchange keys for methods).
If you prefer $object->{method}() syntax, you can use a hash reference instead of hash.
my $object = {};
%$object = constructor();
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my %object = constructor();
$object{save}->('name' => 'smith');
print $object{count}->(), $/;
my $name = $object{lookup}->('name');
$object{delete}->('name');
print $object{count}->(), $/;
print "My name is $name\n";
sub constructor {
my %object;
return
'save' => sub {
my ($key, $val) = @_;
die "save method requires two parameters" if ! defined $va
+l;
$object{$key} = $val;
return;
},
'delete' => sub {
my $key = shift;
return delete $object{$key};
},
'lookup' => sub {
my $key = shift;
return $object{$key};
},
'count' => sub {
return scalar keys %object;
}
}