Perl::Critic::Policy::Subroutines::ProhibitManyArgs3pm

Affiliation

This Policy is part of the core Perl::Critic distribution.

Overview

Subroutines that expect large numbers of arguments are hard to use because programmers routinely have to look at documentation to remember the order of those arguments. Many arguments is often a sign that a subroutine should be refactored or that an object should be passed to the routine.

Configuration

By default, this policy allows up to 5 arguments without warning. To change this threshold, put entries in a .perlcriticrc file like this:

  [Subroutines::ProhibitManyArgs]
  max_arguments = 6

To ignore $self or $class in your argument count, as long as they're the first argument, use:

  [Subroutines::ProhibitManyArgs]
  skip_object = 1

Caveats

PPI doesn't currently detect anonymous subroutines, so we don't check those. This should just work when PPI gains that feature.

We don't check for @ARG, the alias for @_ from English.pm. That's deprecated anyway.

Credits

Initial development of this policy was supported by a grant from the Perl Foundation.