Raku Books / Perl 6 at a Glance / Classes

Class methods

The method keyword defines a method, similarly to how we define subroutines with sub. A method has access to all attributes of the class, both public and private.

The method itself can be private. We will return to this later after talking about inheritance.

In the following short example, two methods are created, and each of them manipulates the private @!orders array.

class Cafe {
    has $.name;
    has @!orders;

    method order($what) {
        @!orders.push($what);
    }

    method list-orders {
        @!orders.sort.join(', ').say;
    }
}

my $cafe = Cafe.new(
    name => "Paris"
);

$cafe.order('meat');
$cafe.order('fish');
$cafe.list-orders; # fish, meat

The code should be quite readable for people familiar with OOP. Just keep in mind that “everything is an object” and you may chain method calls.

@!orders.sort.join(', ').say;

Instance methods receive a special variable, self (having no sigil), which points to the current object. It can be used to access instance data or the class methods.

method order($what) {
    @!orders.push($what);
    self.list-orders;
}

method list-orders {
    say self.name;
    @!orders.sort.join(', ').say;
}

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