Fix Those Legacy Subroutines or Methods

Maybe you know the feeling… you go to add an option to that method or subroutine and… cue Jaws theme

sub update_shopping_cart {
    my $cart_id        = shift;
    my $item           = shift;
    my $quantity       = shift;

Argh. You don’t want your legacy code to break but you also don’t want to add a fourth unnamed parameter to the existing problem. And the solution is simple:

sub update_shopping_cart {
    my $cart_id        = shift;
    my $item           = shift;
    my $quantity       = shift;
    my $apply_discount = 0;        # Initialize the fourth parameter

    my $param1 = $cart_id;
    if ( ref $param1 eq 'HASH' ) {
        $cart_id        = $param1->{cart_id};
        $item           = $param1->{item};
        $quantity       = $param1->{quantity};
        $apply_discount = $param1->{apply_discount};
    }

Now either of these work. The legacy call:

update_shopping_cart( 314, 'apples', 3 );

…or the new style:

update_shopping_cart({
    cart_id        => 314,
    item           => 'apples',
    quantity       => 3,
    apply_discount => 1,
});

Bonus: there is no way to use the new option with the old-style call. If someone wants to use it, they’ll need to switch to the new style.

Pros:

• The new call is self-documenting. In the original form of the call, you see “314” in the code by itself, and it’s not immediately obvious what it is. Now it’s nicely labeled.
• Now that you have added the new format, you can painlessly add additional named parameters as needed.

Cons:

• It may be confusing to see two different styles of calls in your codebase. But, now you can transition the old code piecemeal.