Is there a less verbose alternative to Perl's Data::Dumper?

Question

I'm trying to print some parse trees, and Data::Dumper is very verbose for that, for example printing:

{
  'A' => {
    'ID' => 'y'
  },
  'OP' => '=',
  'B' => {
    'NUM' => '5'
  }
},

rather than let's say:

{
  'A' => {'ID' => 'y'},
  'OP' => '=',
  'B' => {'NUM' => '5'}
},

and it's very hard to read since it take massive number of lines.

Is there any Perl library which does what Data::Dumper does except more tersely, or do I need to write my own?

Are none of the options for [`$Data::Dumper::Indent`](http://perldoc.perl.org/Data/Dumper.html#Configuration-Variables-or-Methods) useful to you? — Klaus Byskov Pedersen, Jun 29 '12 at 12:37
Perhaps this question is useful http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1595557/how-can-i-control-the-formatting-of-datadumpers-output — Johan Soderberg, Jun 29 '12 at 12:39
It's already with `$Data::Dumper::Indent=1; $Data::Dumper::Terse = 1;` — taw, Jun 29 '12 at 12:39
Oops, indeed. I guess I'll edit my answer to alternative modules then. — Oleg V. Volkov, Jun 29 '12 at 12:43

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 29 '12 at 12:57

11

You want Data::Dump :

HISTORY

The Data::Dump module grew out of frustration with Sarathy's in-most-cases-excellent Data::Dumper. Basic ideas and some code are shared with Sarathy's module. The Data::Dump module provides a much simpler interface than Data::Dumper.

Data::Printer is a more modern alternative with colored output.

answered Jun 29 '12 at 12:57

Zaid

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I know I'll catch flak, but I prefer Data::Dump to Data::Dumper. I guess it's just whatcha know and are used to. :-) – mswanberg Jun 30 '12 at 00:21

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 29 '12 at 12:59

4

You mean besides Data::Dumper::Concise? :)

answered Jun 29 '12 at 12:59

hobbs

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 29 '12 at 12:40

If using $Data::Dumper::Indent is not enough, you may like to try JSON or YAML module families, if you only need data to be human-readable (i.e. for debugging). Their format is close enough to Perl's own to read easily and they have many formatting options.

Is there a less verbose alternative to Perl's Data::Dumper?

3 Answers3

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