Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder - Build LDAP filter statements

       Originally written by Ray Miller.

       This software is copyright (c) 2010 by University of Oxford.

       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under  the  same  terms  as  the  Perl  5
       programming language system itself.

perl v5.36.0                                       2022-10-16                      Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder(3pm)

       This is a convenience module which greatly simplifies the construction of LDAP query filter statements,
       which are described in RFC 4515 and also the Net::LDAP::Filter manual page.

       Oliver Gorwits "<oliver.gorwits@oucs.ox.ac.uk>"

as_str
           Returns  the  string  representation of the LDAP filter.  Note that the object will stringify to this
           value in string context, too.

       and(FILTERSPEC)
           Logically conjoins  this  filter  with  the  one  specified  by  FILTERSPEC.   FILTERSPEC  may  be  a
           Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder object, or a hash representation of the filter as taken by new.

           Returns the newly-conjoined Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder.

       or(FILTERSPEC)
           Logically  disjoins  this  filter  with  the  one  specified  by  FILTERSPEC.   FILTERSPEC  may  be a
           Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder object, or a hash representation of the filter as taken by new.

           Returns the newly-disjoined Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder.

       not Logically complements this filter.

           Returns the newly-negated Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder.

       Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder - Build LDAP filter statements

       Use this module to construct LDAP filter statements which are compliant with the RFC 4515 syntax and also
       safely escape special characters. Filter statements can be built incrementally using simple logic
       operations.

        use Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder;

        my $filter1 = Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder->new( sn => 'Jones' );
        # now $filter1 eq '(sn=Jones)'

       Basic logic operations such as "and", "or" and "not":

        $filter1->and( givenName => 'David' );
        # (&(sn=Jones)(givenName=David))

        my $filter2 = Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder->new( sn => [ 'Jones', 'Edwards', 'Lewis' ] );
        # (|(sn=Jones)(sn=Edwards)(sn=Lewis))

        my $filter3 = Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder->new( givenName => 'David' )->not;
        # (!(givenName=David))

       Build up filters incrementally from other FilterBuidler objects:

        my $filter4 = Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder->new( sn => ['Jones', 'Edwards'] )->and( $filter3 );
        # (&(|(sn=Jones)(sn=Edwards))(!(givenName=David)))

       Special characters to LDAP will be escaped:

        my $filter5 = Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder->new( sn => 'foo*bar' );
        # (sn=foo\*bar)

       To disable escaping, pass a Scalar reference:

        my $filter6 = Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder->new( sn => \'foo*bar' );
        # (sn=foo*bar)

       Alternate operators are available through the three-argument constructor form:

        my $filter7 = Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder->new( '>=', dateOfBirth => '19700101000000Z' );
        # (dateOfBirth>=19700101000000Z)

       To make any filter, call the constructor "new" with the attribute and value to match:

        my $filter = Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder->new( sn => 'Jones' );

       The value returned is an object, but stringifies to the current query:

        print "success" if $filter eq '(sn=Jones)';
        # prints "success"

       However you can refine the filter statement using three additional methods for the logical operations
       "and", "or" and "not", as shown in the "SYNOPSIS" section, above, and the "METHODS" section below.

       There are two ways to refine a filter. Either call the logic method with a new attribute and value, or
       call a logic method and pass another Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder object. These two practices are also shown
       in the "SYNOPSIS" section, above.

   ComparisonOperators
       By default the module uses an equal operator between the attribute and value.  To select an alternate
       operator, use the three agurment form of the constructor:

        my $filter = Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder->new( '>=', dateOfBirth => '19700101000000Z' );
        # (dateOfBirth>=19700101000000Z)

       Note that this module is not aware of the list of valid operators, it simply takes the first argument to
       be the operator, whatever it might be.

   SpecialCharacterEscaping
       If you happen to include one of the small set of characters which are of special significance to LDAP
       filter statements in your value argument, then those characters will be escaped. The list of characters
       is:

        ( ) * \ NUL

       To avoid this pass in a scalar reference as the value argument. For example to enable a wildcard
       (substring) match on a value:

        my $filter = Net::LDAP::FilterBuilder->new( sn => \'foo*bar' );
        # (sn=foo*bar)

       version 1.200002