Question

Can I use Getopt::Long to set struct fields?

use strict;
use diagnostics;
use Getopt::Long;
use Class::Struct foo [ a => '$', b => '$' ];

my $foo = foo->new();
GetOptions("a=i" => \$foo->a, "b=i" => \$foo->b);

does not seem to work, “-a 10” does not seem to set $foo->a.

obviously, I would rather avoid

GetOptions("a=i" => sub { $foo->a($_[1]); }, ...);

also, I would rather keep the struct foo an array, not a hash.

Answer 1

\$foo->a will be a reference to the return value of $foo->a, which is certainly not what you want.

You can probably use the ability of GetOptions to store the values in a hash reference, then pass that to your object’s new:

my $opt = {};
GetOptions($opt, 'a=i', 'b=i', ...)
my $foo = foo->new(%$opt);