<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE apiClassifier PUBLIC "-//IBM//DTD DITA API Classifier Reference Type//EN"

 "../dtd/apiClassifier.dtd">

<apiClassifier id="FileHandle">

<apiName>FileHandle class</apiName>

<shortdesc>Supply object methods for filehandles.</shortdesc>

<apiClassifierDetail>

<apiSyntax>

<apiSyntaxText>my $fh = new FileHandle(<apiItemName>name</apiItemName>, <apiItemName>mode</apiItemName>);</apiSyntaxText>

<apiSyntaxItem>

<apiItemName>name</apiItemName>

<apiDefNote>The filename for the accessed file.</apiDefNote>

</apiSyntaxItem>

<apiSyntaxItem>

<apiItemName>mode</apiItemName>

<apiDefNote>How the file is accessed including <synph>r</synph> for read and <synph>w</synph> for

write.</apiDefNote>

</apiSyntaxItem>

</apiSyntax>

<apiDesc>The FileHandle class manages input and output operations for files.

When the object is scavenged, the file is closed.</apiDesc>

<example><pre>my @lines;

my $fh = new FileHandle("filename.txt", "r");

if (defined $fh) {

	@lines = $fh->getlines();

	undef $fh;

}</pre><p>The example opens a text file, reads all of the lines from the file

into an array, and closes the file.</p></example>

</apiClassifierDetail>

<apiValue id="autoflush">

<apiName>autoflush variable</apiName>

<shortdesc></shortdesc>

<apiValueDetail>

<apiSyntax>

<apiSyntaxText>$fh->autoflush = <apiItemName>expression</apiItemName>;</apiSyntaxText>

<apiSyntaxItem>

<apiItemName>expression</apiItemName>

<apiDefNote>0 to flush output only on request, 1 to flush output after every

write.</apiDefNote>

</apiSyntaxItem>

</apiSyntax>

</apiValueDetail>

</apiValue>

<apiValue id="input_record_separator">

<apiName>input_record_separator variable</apiName>

<shortdesc>The input record separator, which is a newline by default. </shortdesc>

<apiValueDetail>

<apiSyntax>

<apiSyntaxText>$fh->input_record_separator = undef;</apiSyntaxText>

</apiSyntax>

<apiDesc>You can set input_record_separator to a multi-character string to

match a multi-character terminator or to <synph>undef</synph> to read through

the end of file. </apiDesc>

</apiValueDetail>

</apiValue>

<apiOperation id="print">

<apiName>print subroutine</apiName>

<shortdesc>Prints a string or a list of strings to a file.</shortdesc>

<apiOperationDetail>

<apiSyntax>

<apiSyntaxText>$fh->print(<apiItemName>string</apiItemName>, ...);</apiSyntaxText>

<apiSyntaxItem>

<apiItemName>string</apiItemName>

<apiDefNote>One or more strings for printing to the file.</apiDefNote>

</apiSyntaxItem>

</apiSyntax>

</apiOperationDetail>

</apiOperation>

<apiOperation id="printf">

<apiName>printf subroutine</apiName>

<shortdesc>Prints a string to a file formatted by the usual conventions of

the C library function.</shortdesc>

<apiOperationDetail>

<apiSyntax>

<apiSyntaxText>$fh->printf(<apiItemName>format</apiItemName>, <apiItemName>string</apiItemName>, ...);</apiSyntaxText>

<apiSyntaxItem>

<apiItemName>format</apiItemName>

<apiDefNote>A string with tokens for interpolating and formatting strings.</apiDefNote>

</apiSyntaxItem>

<apiSyntaxItem>

<apiItemName>string</apiItemName>

<apiDefNote>One or more strings to interpolate.</apiDefNote>

</apiSyntaxItem>

</apiSyntax>

</apiOperationDetail>

</apiOperation>

<apiOperation id="getline">

<apiName>getline subroutine</apiName>

<shortdesc>Yields the next line from that file (the newline, if any, included).</shortdesc>

<apiOperationDetail>

<apiSyntax>

<apiSyntaxText>$fh->getline;</apiSyntaxText>

</apiSyntax>

</apiOperationDetail>

</apiOperation>

<apiOperation id="getlines">

<apiName>getlines subroutine</apiName>

<shortdesc>Reads all of the remaining lines from a file as a list.</shortdesc>

<apiOperationDetail>

<apiSyntax>

<apiSyntaxText>$fh->getlines;</apiSyntaxText>

</apiSyntax>

</apiOperationDetail>

</apiOperation>

</apiClassifier>