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Perl::Critic::Policy::RegularExpressions::ProhibitFixedStringMatches - Use "eq" or hash instead of

Affiliation

       This Policy is part of the core Perl::Critic distribution.

Author

       Chris Dolan <cdolan@cpan.org>

Configuration

       This Policy is not configurable except for the standard options.

Credits

       Initial development of this policy was supported by a grant from the Perl Foundation.

Description

       A regular expression that matches just a fixed set of constant strings is wasteful of performance and is
       hard on maintainers.  It is much more readable and often faster to use "eq" or a hash to match such
       strings.

           # Bad
           my $is_file_function = $token =~ m/\A (?: open | close | read ) \z/xms;

           # Faster and more readable
           my $is_file_function = $token eq 'open' ||
                                  $token eq 'close' ||
                                  $token eq 'read';

       For larger numbers of strings, a hash is superior:

           # Bad
           my $is_perl_keyword =
               $token =~ m/\A (?: chomp | chop | chr | crypt | hex | index
                                  lc | lcfirst | length | oct | ord | ... ) \z/xms;

           # Better
           Readonly::Hash my %PERL_KEYWORDS => map {$_ => 1} qw(
               chomp chop chr crypt hex index lc lcfirst length oct ord ...
           );
           my $is_perl_keyword = $PERL_KEYWORD{$token};

       Conway also suggests using lc() instead of a case-insensitive match.

   VARIANTS
       This policy detects both grouped and non-grouped strings.  The grouping may or may not be capturing.  The
       grouped body may or may not be alternating.  "\A" and "\z" are always considered anchoring which "^" and
       "$" are considered anchoring is the "m" regexp option is not in use.  Thus, all of these are violations:

           m/^foo$/;
           m/\A foo \z/x;
           m/\A foo \z/xm;
           m/\A(foo)\z/;
           m/\A(?:foo)\z/;
           m/\A(foo|bar)\z/;
           m/\A(?:foo|bar)\z/;

       Furthermore, this policy detects violations in "m//", "s///" and "qr//" constructs, as you would expect.

Name

       Perl::Critic::Policy::RegularExpressions::ProhibitFixedStringMatches - Use "eq" or hash instead of
       fixed-pattern regexps.

See Also