--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/modules/stdlib/lib/puppet/parser/functions/size.rb	Sat Aug 16 19:47:38 2014 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+#
+# size.rb
+#
+
+# TODO(Krzysztof Wilczynski): Support for hashes would be nice too ...
+
+module Puppet::Parser::Functions
+  newfunction(:size, :type => :rvalue, :doc => <<-EOS
+Returns the number of elements in a string or array.
+    EOS
+  ) do |arguments|
+
+    raise(Puppet::ParseError, "size(): Wrong number of arguments " +
+      "given (#{arguments.size} for 1)") if arguments.size < 1
+
+    item = arguments[0]
+
+    if item.is_a?(String)
+
+      begin
+        #
+        # Check whether your item is a numeric value or not ...
+        # This will take care about positive and/or negative numbers
+        # for both integer and floating-point values ...
+        #
+        # Please note that Puppet has no notion of hexadecimal
+        # nor octal numbers for its DSL at this point in time ...
+        #
+        Float(item)
+
+        raise(Puppet::ParseError, 'size(): Requires either ' +
+          'string or array to work with')
+
+      rescue ArgumentError
+        result = item.size
+      end
+
+    elsif item.is_a?(Array)
+      result = item.size
+    else
+      raise(Puppet::ParseError, 'size(): Unknown type given')
+    end
+
+    return result
+  end
+end
+
+# vim: set ts=2 sw=2 et :