Provided by: libhtml-tree-perl_5.07-3_all 
NAME
HTML::Element::traverse - discussion of HTML::Element's traverse method
VERSION
This document describes version 5.07 of HTML::Element::traverse, released August 31, 2017 as part of
HTML-Tree.
SYNOPSIS
# $element->traverse is unnecessary and obscure.
# Don't use it in new code.
DESCRIPTION
"HTML::Element" provides a method "traverse" that traverses the tree and calls user-specified callbacks
for each node, in pre- or post-order. However, use of the method is quite superfluous: if you want to
recursively visit every node in the tree, it's almost always simpler to write a subroutine does just
that, than it is to bundle up the pre- and/or post-order code in callbacks for the "traverse" method.
EXAMPLES
Suppose you want to traverse at/under a node $tree and give elements an 'id' attribute unless they
already have one.
You can use the "traverse" method:
{
my $counter = 'x0000';
$start_node->traverse(
[ # Callbacks;
# pre-order callback:
sub {
my $x = $_[0];
$x->attr('id', $counter++) unless defined $x->attr('id');
return HTML::Element::OK; # keep traversing
},
# post-order callback:
undef
],
1, # don't call the callbacks for text nodes
);
}
or you can just be simple and clear (and not have to understand the calling format for "traverse") by
writing a sub that traverses the tree by just calling itself:
{
my $counter = 'x0000';
sub give_id {
my $x = $_[0];
$x->attr('id', $counter++) unless defined $x->attr('id');
foreach my $c ($x->content_list) {
give_id($c) if ref $c; # ignore text nodes
}
};
give_id($start_node);
}
See, isn't that nice and clear?
But, if you really need to know:
THE TRAVERSE METHOD
The "traverse()" method is a general object-method for traversing a tree or subtree and calling user-
specified callbacks. It accepts the following syntaxes:
$h->traverse(\&callback)
or $h->traverse(\&callback, $ignore_text)
or $h->traverse( [\&pre_callback,\&post_callback] , $ignore_text)
These all mean to traverse the element and all of its children. That is, this method starts at node $h,
"pre-order visits" $h, traverses its children, and then will "post-order visit" $h. "Visiting" means
that the callback routine is called, with these arguments:
$_[0] : the node (element or text segment),
$_[1] : a startflag, and
$_[2] : the depth
If the $ignore_text parameter is given and true, then the pre-order call will not be happen for text
content.
The startflag is 1 when we enter a node (i.e., in pre-order calls) and 0 when we leave the node (in post-
order calls).
Note, however, that post-order calls don't happen for nodes that are text segments or are elements that
are prototypically empty (like "br", "hr", etc.).
If we visit text nodes (i.e., unless $ignore_text is given and true), then when text nodes are visited,
we will also pass two extra arguments to the callback:
$_[3] : the element that's the parent
of this text node
$_[4] : the index of this text node
in its parent's content list
Note that you can specify that the pre-order routine can be a different routine from the post-order one:
$h->traverse( [\&pre_callback,\&post_callback], ...);
You can also specify that no post-order calls are to be made, by providing a false value as the post-
order routine:
$h->traverse([ \&pre_callback,0 ], ...);
And similarly for suppressing pre-order callbacks:
$h->traverse([ 0,\&post_callback ], ...);
Note that these two syntaxes specify the same operation:
$h->traverse([\&foo,\&foo], ...);
$h->traverse( \&foo , ...);
The return values from calls to your pre- or post-order routines are significant, and are used to control
recursion into the tree.
These are the values you can return, listed in descending order of my estimation of their usefulness:
HTML::Element::OK, 1, or any other true value
...to keep on traversing.
Note that "HTML::Element::OK" et al are constants. So if you're running under "use strict" (as I
hope you are), and you say: "return HTML::Element::PRUEN" the compiler will flag this as an error (an
unallowable bareword, specifically), whereas if you spell PRUNE correctly, the compiler will not
complain.
undef, 0, '0', '', or HTML::Element::PRUNE
...to block traversing under the current element's content. (This is ignored if received from a
post-order callback, since by then the recursion has already happened.) If this is returned by a
pre-order callback, no post-order callback for the current node will happen. (Recall that if your
callback exits with just "return;", it is returning undef -- at least in scalar context, and
"traverse" always calls your callbacks in scalar context.)
HTML::Element::ABORT
...to abort the whole traversal immediately. This is often useful when you're looking for just the
first node in the tree that meets some criterion of yours.
HTML::Element::PRUNE_UP
...to abort continued traversal into this node and its parent node. No post-order callback for the
current or parent node will happen.
HTML::Element::PRUNE_SOFTLY
Like PRUNE, except that the post-order call for the current node is not blocked.
Almost every task to do with extracting information from a tree can be expressed in terms of traverse
operations (usually in only one pass, and usually paying attention to only pre-order, or to only post-
order), or operations based on traversing. (In fact, many of the other methods in this class are
basically calls to traverse() with particular arguments.)
The source code for HTML::Element and HTML::TreeBuilder contain several examples of the use of the
"traverse" method to gather information about the content of trees and subtrees.
(Note: you should not change the structure of a tree while you are traversing it.)
[End of documentation for the "traverse()" method]
Traversing with Recursive Anonymous Routines
Now, if you've been reading Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs too much, maybe you even
want a recursive lambda. Go ahead:
{
my $counter = 'x0000';
my $give_id;
$give_id = sub {
my $x = $_[0];
$x->attr('id', $counter++) unless defined $x->attr('id');
foreach my $c ($x->content_list) {
$give_id->($c) if ref $c; # ignore text nodes
}
};
$give_id->($start_node);
undef $give_id;
}
It's a bit nutty, and it's still more concise than a call to the "traverse" method!
It is left as an exercise to the reader to figure out how to do the same thing without using a $give_id
symbol at all.
It is also left as an exercise to the reader to figure out why I undefine $give_id, above; and why I
could achieved the same effect with any of:
$give_id = 'I like pie!';
# or...
$give_id = [];
# or even;
$give_id = sub { print "Mmmm pie!\n" };
But not:
$give_id = sub { print "I'm $give_id and I like pie!\n" };
# nor...
$give_id = \$give_id;
# nor...
$give_id = { 'pie' => \$give_id, 'mode' => 'a la' };
Doing Recursive Things Iteratively
Note that you may at times see an iterative implementation of pre-order traversal, like so:
{
my @to_do = ($tree); # start-node
while(@to_do) {
my $this = shift @to_do;
# "Visit" the node:
$this->attr('id', $counter++)
unless defined $this->attr('id');
unshift @to_do, grep ref $_, $this->content_list;
# Put children on the stack -- they'll be visited next
}
}
This can under certain circumstances be more efficient than just a normal recursive routine, but at the
cost of being rather obscure. It gains efficiency by avoiding the overhead of function-calling, but
since there are several method dispatches however you do it (to "attr" and "content_list"), the overhead
for a simple function call is insignificant.
Pruning and Whatnot
The "traverse" method does have the fairly neat features of the "ABORT", "PRUNE_UP" and "PRUNE_SOFTLY"
signals. None of these can be implemented totally straightforwardly with recursive routines, but it is
quite possible. "ABORT"-like behavior can be implemented either with using non-local returning with
"eval"/"die":
my $died_on; # if you need to know where...
sub thing {
... visits $_[0]...
... maybe set $died_on to $_[0] and die "ABORT_TRAV" ...
... else call thing($child) for each child...
...any post-order visiting $_[0]...
}
eval { thing($node) };
if($@) {
if($@ =~ m<^ABORT_TRAV>) {
...it died (aborted) on $died_on...
} else {
die $@; # some REAL error happened
}
}
or you can just do it with flags:
my($abort_flag, $died_on);
sub thing {
... visits $_[0]...
... maybe set $abort_flag = 1; $died_on = $_[0]; return;
foreach my $c ($_[0]->content_list) {
thing($c);
return if $abort_flag;
}
...any post-order visiting $_[0]...
return;
}
$abort_flag = $died_on = undef;
thing($node);
...if defined $abort_flag, it died on $died_on
SEE ALSO
HTML::Element
AUTHOR
Current maintainers:
• Christopher J. Madsen "<perl AT cjmweb.net>"
• Jeff Fearn "<jfearn AT cpan.org>"
Original HTML-Tree author:
• Gisle Aas
Former maintainers:
• Sean M. Burke
• Andy Lester
• Pete Krawczyk "<petek AT cpan.org>"
You can follow or contribute to HTML-Tree's development at <https://github.com/kentfredric/HTML-Tree>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2000,2001 Sean M. Burke
perl v5.36.0 2022-12-06 HTML::Element::traverse(3pm)