package ApplyTable;

# apply a hashtable of regexp/function pairs to an input string, executing
#   the first function that matches (case insensitive) the given text.
# returns whatever the executed function returns, or else undef if no match.

# Usage: applytable(string, reference-to-hashtable, arglist)
#   this will call function(arglist), where function is the right
#   one depending on the hash table, arglist is passed through unmodified.
#   Note: $& can be used to extract which string matched you.

# Examples
#   using an existing hashtable, with a two element arglist
#     applytable($_, \%functionmap, 'lala', 'mama');
#   using an anonymous hash, with one anonymous sub, no arglist
#     applytable("Foobar", {'xyzzy' => \&subNotUsed, 
# 	     	            'bar'   => sub { print "Bar detected\n" }});

use Exporter;
@ISA = qw(Exporter);
@EXPORT = qw(applytable);

sub applytable {
    my $inputString = shift;
    my %fmap = %{shift()};
    my @arglist = @_;
    my $k;

    foreach $k (keys(%fmap)) {
	if ($inputString =~ /$k/i) {
	    return &{$fmap{$k}}(@arglist);
	}
    }
    return undef;
}

1;