tcl7.6 User Commands - array
NAME
array - Manipulate array variables
SYNOPSIS
array option arrayName ?arg arg ...?
DESCRIPTION
This command performs one of several operations on the vari-
able given by arrayName. Unless otherwise specified for
individual commands below, arrayName must be the name of an
existing array variable. The option argument determines
what action is carried out by the command. The legal
options (which may be abbreviated) are:
array anymore arrayName searchId
Returns 1 if there are any more elements left to be
processed in an array search, 0 if all elements have
already been returned. SearchId indicates which search
on arrayName to check, and must have been the return
value from a previous invocation of array startsearch.
This option is particularly useful if an array has an
element with an empty name, since the return value from
array nextelement won't indicate whether the search has
been completed.
array donesearch arrayName searchId
This command terminates an array search and destroys
all the state associated with that search. SearchId
indicates which search on arrayName to destroy, and
must have been the return value from a previous invoca-
tion of array startsearch. Returns an empty string.
array exists arrayName
Returns 1 if arrayName is an array variable, 0 if there
is no variable by that name or if it is a scalar vari-
able.
array get arrayName ?pattern?
Returns a list containing pairs of elements. The first
element in each pair is the name of an element in
arrayName and the second element of each pair is the
value of the array element. The order of the pairs is
undefined. If pattern is not specified, then all of
the elements of the array are included in the result.
If pattern is specified, then only those elements whose
names match pattern (using the glob-style matching
rules of string match) are included. If arrayName
isn't the name of an array variable, or if the array
contains no elements, then an empty list is returned.
array names arrayName ?pattern?
Returns a list containing the names of all of the ele-
ments in the array that match pattern (using the glob-
style matching rules of string match). If pattern is
omitted then the command returns all of the element
names in the array. If there are no (matching) ele-
ments in the array, or if arrayName isn't the name of
an array variable, then an empty string is returned.
array nextelement arrayName searchId
Returns the name of the next element in arrayName, or
an empty string if all elements of arrayName have
already been returned in this search. The searchId
argument identifies the search, and must have been the
return value of an array startsearch command. Warning:
if elements are added to or deleted from the array,
then all searches are automatically terminated just as
if array donesearch had been invoked; this will cause
array nextelement operations to fail for those
searches.
array set arrayName list
Sets the values of one or more elements in arrayName.
list must have a form like that returned by array get,
consisting of an even number of elements. Each odd-
numbered element in list is treated as an element name
within arrayName, and the following element in list is
used as a new value for that array element.
array size arrayName
Returns a decimal string giving the number of elements
in the array. If arrayName isn't the name of an array
then 0 is returned.
array startsearch arrayName
This command initializes an element-by-element search
through the array given by arrayName, such that invoca-
tions of the array nextelement command will return the
names of the individual elements in the array. When
the search has been completed, the array donesearch
command should be invoked. The return value is a
search identifier that must be used in array nextele-
ment and array donesearch commands; it allows multiple
searches to be underway simultaneously for the same
array.
KEYWORDS
array, element names, search