How can I view the contents of a hash in Perl6 (in a fashion similar to the Perl 5 modules Data::Dump or Data::Show)?

hash, perl, raku

Solution

Perl6 docs seem to recommend using `.perl` on the data structure, but it looks like pretty-printing requires extra work:

Given:

my @array_of_hashes = (
    { NAME => 'apple',   type => 'fruit' },
    { NAME => 'cabbage', type => 'no, please no' },
);

Perl 5

use Data::Dumper;
$Data::Dumper::Useqq = 1;
print Dumper \@array_of_hashes; # Note the backslash.

Perl 6

say @array_of_hashes.perl; # .perl on the array, not on its reference.

Problem

In Perl 5, if I want to see the contents of a hash, I can use `Data::Show`, `Data::Dump`, or `Data::Dumper`. For example: ``` use Data::Show; my %title_for = ( 'Book 1' => { 'Chapter 1' => 'Introduction', 'Chapter 2' => 'Conclusion', }, 'Book 2' => { 'Chapter 1' => 'Intro', 'Chapter 2' => 'Interesting stuff', 'Chapter 3' => 'Final words', } ); show(%title_for); ``` Which outputs: ``` ======( %title_for )======================[ 'temp.pl', line 15 ]====== { "Book 1" => { "Chapter 1" => "Introduction", "Chapter 2" => "Conclusion" }, "Book 2" => { "Chapter 1" => "Intro", "Chapter 2" => "Interesting stuff", "Chapter 3" => "Final words", }, } ``` Is there anything equivalent in Perl 6? I thought I remember Damian Conway discussing this feature at YAPC 2010, but I have since lost my notes and Googling hasn't helped. ``` use v6; my %title_for = ( "Book 1" => { "Chapter 1" => "Introduction", "Chapter 2" => "Conclusion" }, "Book 2" => { "Chapter 1" => "Intro", "Chapter 2" => "Interesting stuff", "Chapter 3" => "Final words", }, ); %title_for.say; ``` The closest thing that I found to working is `%title_for.say`. However, it seems messy for nested hashes: ``` Book 1 => Chapter 1 => Introduction, Chapter 2 => Conclusion, Book 2 => Chapter 1 => Intro, Chapter 2 => Interesting stuff, Chapter 3 => Final words ``` I'm using Perl6 running on MoarVM from the January 2015 release of Rakudo Star.

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