---
name: "Prophet::Util"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "libprophet-perl"
version: "0.743-1"
release: "Debian 7 (Wheezy)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Prophet::Util"
---

# Prophet::Util(3pm)

### updir PATH

Strips off the filename in the given path and returns the absolute path of the remaining directory.

### slurp FILENAME

Reads in the entire file whose absolute path is given by FILENAME and returns its contents, either in a scalar or in an array of lines, depending on the context.

### instantiate\_record class =\> 'record-class-name', uuid =\> 'record-uuid', app\_handle =\> $self-\>app\_handle

Takes the name of a record class (must subclass Prophet::Record), a uuid, and an application handle and returns a new instantiated record object of the given class.

### escape\_utf8 REF

Given a reference to a scalar, escapes special characters (currently just &, \<, \>, (, ), ", and ') for use in HTML and XML.

Not an object routine (call as Prophet::Util::escape\_utf8( \\$scalar) ).