Documentation for declarator proto assembled from the following types:

language documentation Functions

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(Functions) declarator proto

proto is a way to formally declare commonalities between multi candidates. It acts as a wrapper that can validate but not modify arguments. Consider this basic example:

proto congratulate(Str $reason, Str $name, |) {*}
multi congratulate($reason, $name) {
   say "Hooray for your $reason, $name";
}
multi congratulate($reason, $name, Int $rank) {
   say "Hooray for your $reason, $name -- got rank $rank!";
}
 
congratulate('being a cool number', 'Fred');     # OK 
congratulate('being a cool number', 'Fred', 42); # OK

congratulate('being a cool number', 42);         # Proto match error 

The proto insists that all multi congratulate subs conform to the basic signature of two strings, optionally followed by further parameters. The | is an un-named Capture parameter, and allows a multi to take additional arguments. The first two calls succeed, but the third fails (at compile time) because 42 doesn't match Str.

say &congratulate.signature # OUTPUT: «(Str $reason, Str $name, | is raw)␤» 

You can give the proto a function body, and place the {*} where you want the dispatch to be done.

# attempts to notify someone -- False if unsuccessful 
proto notify(Str $user, Str $msg) {
   my \hour = DateTime.now.hour;
   if hour > 8 or hour < 22 {
      return {*};
   } else {
      # we can't notify someone when they might be sleeping 
      return False;
   }
}

{*} always dispatches to candidates with the parameters it's called with. Parameter defaults and type coercions will work but are not passed on.

proto mistake-proto(Str() $str, Int $number = 42) {*}
multi mistake-proto($str, $number) { say $str.^name }
mistake-proto(7, 42);  # OUTPUT: «Int␤» -- not passed on 

mistake-proto('test'); # fails -- not passed on