How to check if the first variable passed into a method is a string. Perl - string

Question

I have no idea how to check for this. My method(if condition in method) should only work (execute) if the first argument passed in is a string. I know how to check other types, but I can't seem to find anything for checking for a string.
For a hash I would do something like;
if(ref eq 'HASH') {...}
If someone could provide a simple example I'm sure I would be able to apply it to what I'm doing. I will put up the code for the method and an explanation for the whole operational details of the method if needed.
Added Information
This is a method for handling different types of errors in the software, here are the 3 possible input formats:
$class->new("error string message")
$class->new("error string message", code => "UNABLE_TO_PING_SWITCH_ERROR")
$class->new("error string message", code => "UNABLE_TO_PING_SWITCH_ERROR", switch_ip => $ip3, timeout => $timeout)
There will always be an error message string first.
With the 1st case there is also a hashref to an error hash structure that is located in a library,
this method new will go into a template processing if the word "code" exists as an arg. where the longer detailed error message is constructed. (I already have the logic for this).
But I have to add logic so that the error message string is added to the hash, so the output is one hash, and not strings.
The second case is very similar to the first, where there are parameters eg. switch_ip , which are inserted into the string using a similar template processing logic, (already have this too).
So I think the first and second cases can be handled in the same way, but I'm not sure, so separated them in this question.
The last case is just can error message string by itself, which at the minute I just insert it into a one key message hash { message => "error string}.
So after all that how should I be checking or dividing up these error cases, At the minute my idea for the ones with code , is to dump the arguments into a hash and just use something like:
if(exists($param{code}) { doTemplateProcess()...}
I need to ensure that there is a string passed in first though. Which was my original question. Does any of my context information help? I hope I didn't go off the topic of my question, if so I'll open this a new question. Thanks.
Error hash - located in Type.pm
use constant ERROR_CODE => {
UNABLE_TO_PING_SWITCH_ERROR => {
category => 'Connection Error:',
template => 'Could not ping switch %s in %s minutes',
tt => {template => 'disabled'},
fatal => 1,
wiki_page => www.error-solution.com/,
},
}
From comments:
These will be called in the software's code like so
ASC::Builder::Error->new(
"Phase x this occured because y was happening:",
code => UNABLE_TO_PING_SWITCH_ERROR,
switch_ip => $ip3,
timeout => 30,
);

Answer 1

Putting the wisdom of your particular problem aside and channeling Jeff Foxworthy:
If you have a scalar and it's not a reference, you might have a string.
If your non-reference scalar doesn't look like a number, it might be a string.
If your non-reference scalar looks like a number, it can still be a string.
If your non-reference scalar has a different string and number value, it might be a dualvar.
You know that your argument list is just that: a list. A list is a collection of scalar values. A scalar can be a reference or not a reference. I think you're looking for the not a reference case:
die "You can't do that" if ref $first_argument;
Past that, you'd have to do fancier things to determine if it's the sort of value that you want. This might also mean that you reject objects that pretend to be strings through overloading and whatnot.
Perhaps you can make the first argument part of the key-value pairs that you pass. You can then access that key to extract the value and delete it before you use the remaining pairs.

Answer 2

You may easily check only whether the error string is a simple scalar value or a reference. You would do that with ref, but you must consider what you want to do if the first parameter isn't a string
You should write your constructor in the ASC::Builder::Error package along these lines
sub new {
my $class = shift;
my ($error, %options) = #_;
die if ref $error;
bless { string => $error }, $class;
}
This example simply dies, and so kills the program, if it is called with anything other than a simple string or number as the first parameter
You may call it as
ASC::Builder::Error->new('error')
or
ASC::Builder::Error->new(42)
and all will be well. If you try
ASC::Builder::Error->new('message', 'code')
then you will see a warning
Odd number of elements in hash assignment
And you may make that warning fatal
If there is anything more then you should explain

Answer 3

Supporting all of the following is simple:
$class->new("s")
$class->new("s", code => "s")
$class->new("s", code => "s", switch_ip => "s", timeout => "s")
All you need is the following:
sub new {
my ($class, $msg, %opts) = #_;
...
}
You can checks such as the following to examine what the called provided:
if (exists($opts{code}))
if (defined($opts{code}))
if ($opts{code})
Despite saying that the string will always be provided, you now ask how to check if was provided. As such, you are probably trying to perform validation rather than polymorphism. You shouldn't waste your time doing this.
Let's look at the hash reference example you gave. ref($arg) eq 'HASH' is wrong. That returns false for some hash references, and it returns false for some things that act like a reference to a hash. The following is a more proper check:
eval { %$arg; 1 }
The equivalent for strings would be the following:
eval { "$arg"; 1 }
Unfortunately, it will always return true! Every value can act as a string. That means the best thing you can do is simply to check if any argument is provided.
use Carp qw( croak );
croak("usage") if !#_;
It's rare for Perl subs to perform argument validation. Not only is it tricky, it's also expensive. It also provides very little benefits. Bad or missing arguments usually results in exceptions or warnings shortly after.
You might see suggestions to use croak("usage") if ref($arg); (or worse, die if ref($arg);), but keep in mind that those will cause the rejection of perfectly fine objects that overload stringification (which is somewhat common), and they will fail to detect the problem with ASC::Builder::Error->new(code => ...) because code produces a string. Again, performing type-based argument validation is an expensive and buggy practice in Perl.