Re: utility functions for handling Distinguished Names

[Graham B. <gb...@po...>]

On Thu, Apr 25, 2002 at 09:44:42AM +0100, Graham Barr wrote:
> > >>  sub ldap_explode_dn($%) {
> > >> -  my $dn = shift or return;
> > >> +  my @emptydn = (); #empty DN array for scalar context
> > >> +  my $dn = shift;
> > >> +  return wantarray ? [] : \@emptydn if $dn eq '';
> > >
> > > This does not make sense. You are returning a scalar ref
> > > when wantarray is true. Did you mean
> > >
> > >   return wantarray ? () : [] if $dn eq '';
> > 
> > I'm not that familar with these elements of Perl so it tell you what a I 
> > actually had in mind: The return value of ldap_explode_dn should give the 
> > user an indication, whether an invalid DN was passed in. The problem is now 
> > that the (valid) empty DN '' explodes to an empty array. In the scalar 
> > context one can return undef or a reference to an empty array but I don't 
> > know to express this in list context.
> 
> Yup this is a common problem with context sensetive subs. If the user
> cares about it they need to call it in a scalar context.

For this reason I propose that we remove  context sensetivity from ldap_explode_dn
and always return an array ref, or undef on error. I belive it was
only ever there because ldap_canonical_dn used it, but ldap_canonical_dn
can just as easy use an array ref.

Graham.