Is it possible to pass a subroutine to another subroutine?
 

Hello,

I am writing some testing scripts. At the end of each test I may have to return my environment back to it's default state using various subroutines in various modules. I realize that using the END block I can run these subroutines, however I have hundreds of these test to write and there is various formatting, etc, that is repetitious... so I want to include a single function in my END block that will accept other functions as parameters and then be able to run them from within itself.

A simple example would be:

sub function_runner {

my @exit_functions = @_;

my $counter = 1;

foreach &function (@exit_functions) {

print "Performing exit function $counter:\n"; $counter++;

&function;

}

print "\nAll exit functions completed.\n";

}

I realize this will not work as is, but the gist of what I am trying do is to be able to have function_runner(function1, function2, function3, etc) in my end block. Any help point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Re: Is it possible to pass a subroutine to another subroutine?
 

You could try using a reference to a function.

sub some_function {

   print "foo";

}



my $some_function = \&some_function;

You can pass $some_function like any other scalar, but you need to use the arrow operator to run the function.

$some_function->()

Assuming you pass references to functions to your sub rotuine:

sub function_runner {

   my @exit_functions = @_;

   my $counter = 1;

   foreach my $function (@exit_functions) {

      print "Performing exit function $counter:\n";

      $counter++;

      $function->();

   }

   print "\nAll exit functions completed.\n";

}

Re: Is it possible to pass a subroutine to another subroutine?
 

Hey Kevin,

Just wanted to thank you. Passing references to the functions is exactly what I was trying to do, and it worked perfectly.