NAME

       Tcl_NewObj,  Tcl_DuplicateObj, Tcl_IncrRefCount, Tcl_Decr­
       RefCount, Tcl_IsShared, Tcl_InvalidateStringRep -  manipu­
       late Tcl objects


SYNOPSIS

       #include <tcl.h>

       Tcl_Obj *
       Tcl_NewObj()

       Tcl_Obj *
       Tcl_DuplicateObj(objPtr)

       Tcl_IncrRefCount(objPtr)

       Tcl_DecrRefCount(objPtr)

       int
       Tcl_IsShared(objPtr)

       Tcl_InvalidateStringRep(objPtr)


ARGUMENTS

       Tcl_Obj   *objPtr   (in)      Points  to  an  object; must
                                     have been the  result  of  a
                                     previous call to Tcl_NewObj.
_________________________________________________________________


INTRODUCTION

       This man page presents an overview of Tcl objects and  how
       they  are  used.  It also describes generic procedures for
       managing Tcl objects.  These procedures are used to create
       and copy objects, and increment and decrement the count of
       references (pointers) to objects.  The procedures are used
       in conjunction with ones that operate on specific types of
       objects such as  Tcl_GetIntFromObj  and  Tcl_ListObjAppen­
       dElement.   The  individual procedures are described along
       with the data structures they manipulate.

       Tcl's dual-ported objects provide a general-purpose mecha­
       nism  for storing and exchanging Tcl values.  They largely
       replace the use of strings in Tcl.  For example, they  are
       used  to store variable values, command arguments, command
       results, and scripts.  Tcl objects behave like strings but
       also  hold  an internal representation that can be manipu­
       lated more efficiently.  For example, a Tcl  list  is  now
       represented as an object that holds the list's string rep­
       resentation as well as an array of pointers to the objects
       for  each  list  element.   Dual-ported objects avoid most
       runtime type conversions.  They also improve the speed  of

       immediately  available.   The  compiler  itself  uses  Tcl
       objects  to cache the instruction bytecodes resulting from
       compiling scripts.

       The two representations are a cache of each other and  are
       computed  lazily.   That  is,  each representation is only
       computed when necessary, it is  computed  from  the  other
       representation, and, once computed, it is saved.  In addi­
       tion, a change in one representation invalidates the other
       one.   As an example, a Tcl program doing integer calcula­
       tions  can  operate  directly  on  a  variable's  internal
       machine  integer  representation  without  having  to con­
       stantly convert between integers and strings.   Only  when
       it  needs  a string representing the variable's value, say
       to print it, will the program regenerate the string repre­
       sentation  from  the integer.  Although objects contain an
       internal representation, their semantics  are  defined  in
       terms  of  strings:  an  up-to-date  string  can always be
       obtained, and any change to the object will  be  reflected
       in  that string when the object's string representation is
       fetched.  Because of this representation invalidation  and
       regeneration,  it  is  dangerous  for extension writers to
       access Tcl_Obj fields directly.  It is  better  to  access
       Tcl_Obj   information   using   procedures  like  Tcl_Get­
       StringFromObj and Tcl_GetString.

       Objects are allocated on the heap and are referenced using
       a  pointer to their Tcl_Obj structure.  Objects are shared
       as much as possible.  This significantly  reduces  storage
       requirements  because  some objects such as long lists are
       very large.  Also, most Tcl values are only read and never
       modified.   This  is  especially  true for procedure argu­
       ments, which can be shared  between  the  caller  and  the
       called procedure.  Assignment and argument binding is done
       by simply assigning a pointer  to  the  value.   Reference
       counting  is  used to determine when it is safe to reclaim
       an object's storage.

       Tcl objects are typed.  An object's  internal  representa­
       tion  is  controlled  by its type.  Seven types are prede­
       fined in the Tcl core including integer, double, list, and
       bytecode.   Extension  writers can extend the set of types
       by using the procedure Tcl_RegisterObjType .


THE TCL_OBJ STRUCTURE

       Each Tcl object is  represented  by  a  Tcl_Obj  structure
       which is defined as follows.
              typedef struct Tcl_Obj {
                int refCount;
                char *bytes;
                int length;
                Tcl_ObjType *typePtr;

                   long longValue;
                   double doubleValue;
                   VOID *otherValuePtr;
                   struct {
                     VOID *ptr1;
                     VOID *ptr2;
                   } twoPtrValue;
                } internalRep;
              } Tcl_Obj;
       The bytes and the length members together hold an object's
       string representation, which is a counted or binary string
       that  may  contain  binary  data with embedded null bytes.
       bytes points to the first byte of the  string  representa­
       tion.   The  length member gives the number of bytes.  The
       byte array must always have a null after the last byte, at
       offset  length; this allows string representations that do
       not contain nulls to be treated as conventional  null-ter­
       minated  C  strings.   C programs use Tcl_GetStringFromObj
       and Tcl_GetString to get an  object's  string  representa­
       tion.   If  bytes  is  NULL,  the string representation is
       invalid.

       An object's type manages its internal representation.  The
       member  typePtr  points  to the Tcl_ObjType structure that
       describes the type.  If typePtr is NULL, the internal rep­
       resentation is invalid.

       The  internalRep  union  member holds an object's internal
       representation.  This is either a (long) integer,  a  dou­
       ble-precision  floating point number, a pointer to a value
       containing additional information needed by  the  object's
       type to represent the object, or two arbitrary pointers.

       The  refCount  member  is  used to tell when it is safe to
       free an object's storage.  It holds the  count  of  active
       references  to the object.  Maintaining the correct refer­
       ence count is a key responsibility of  extension  writers.
       Reference counting is discussed below in the section STOR­
       AGE MANAGEMENT OF OBJECTS.

       Although extension writers can directly access the members
       of  a  Tcl_Obj  structure,  it  is  much better to use the
       appropriate procedures and macros.  For example, extension
       writers  should  never  read  or update refCount directly;
       they  should  use  macros  such  as  Tcl_IncrRefCount  and
       Tcl_IsShared instead.

       A key property of Tcl objects is that they hold two repre­
       sentations.  An object  typically  starts  out  containing
       only a string representation: it is untyped and has a NULL
       typePtr.  An object containing an empty string or  a  copy
       of  a  specified  string  is  created  using Tcl_NewObj or
       Tcl_NewStringObj respectively.  An object's  string  value

       changed with Tcl_SetStringObj.  If  the  object  is  later
       passed to a procedure like Tcl_GetIntFromObj that requires
       a specific internal  representation,  the  procedure  will
       create  one  and  set  the object's typePtr.  The internal
       representation is computed from the string representation.
       An  object's  two representations are duals of each other:
       changes made to one are reflected in the other.  For exam­
       ple,  Tcl_ListObjReplace  will modify an object's internal
       representation and the next call  to  Tcl_GetStringFromObj
       or Tcl_GetString will reflect that change.

       Representations  are  recomputed lazily for efficiency.  A
       change to one representation made by a procedure  such  as
       Tcl_ListObjReplace  is  not  reflected  immediately in the
       other representation.  Instead, the  other  representation
       is  marked invalid so that it is only regenerated if it is
       needed later.  Most C programmers never have  to  be  con­
       cerned  with  how  this  is done and simply use procedures
       such as Tcl_GetBooleanFromObj or  Tcl_ListObjIndex.   Pro­
       grammers  that implement their own object types must check
       for  invalid  representations  and  mark   representations
       invalid  when  necessary.   The  procedure  Tcl_Invalidat­
       eStringRep is used to mark an object's string  representa­
       tion  invalid  and to free any storage associated with the
       old string representation.

       Objects usually remain one type over their life, but occa­
       sionally  an  object  must  be  converted from one type to
       another.  For example, a C program might build up a string
       in  an  object with repeated calls to Tcl_AppendToObj, and
       then call Tcl_ListObjIndex to extract a list element  from
       the object.  The same object holding the same string value
       can have several  different  internal  representations  at
       different  times.   Extension  writers  can  also force an
       object to be converted from one type to another using  the
       Tcl_ConvertToType procedure.  Only programmers that create
       new object types need to be concerned about  how  this  is
       done.   A  procedure  defined as part of the object type's
       implementation creates a new internal  representation  for
       an  object  and changes its typePtr.  See the man page for
       Tcl_RegisterObjType to see how  to  create  a  new  object
       type.


EXAMPLE OF THE LIFETIME OF AN OBJECT

       As  an  example of the lifetime of an object, consider the
       following sequence of commands:
              set x 123
       This assigns to x an untyped  object  whose  bytes  member
       points  to 123 and length member contains 3.  The object's
       typePtr member is NULL.
              puts "x is $x"
       x's string representation is valid (since  bytes  is  non-

              incr x
       The  incr command first gets an integer from x's object by
       calling Tcl_GetIntFromObj.  This procedure checks  whether
       the object is already an integer object.  Since it is not,
       it converts the object by setting the  object's  internal­
       Rep.longValue  member  to  the integer 123 and setting the
       object's typePtr  to  point  to  the  integer  Tcl_ObjType
       structure.   Both  representations  are  now  valid.  incr
       increments the object's  integer  internal  representation
       then  invalidates  its  string  representation (by calling
       Tcl_InvalidateStringRep) since the  string  representation
       no longer corresponds to the internal representation.
              puts "x is now $x"
       The  string  representation of x's object is needed and is
       recomputed.  The string representation is  now  124.   and
       both representations are again valid.


STORAGE MANAGEMENT OF OBJECTS

       Tcl  objects  are  allocated on the heap and are shared as
       much as possible to reduce storage  requirements.   Refer­
       ence  counting  is  used to determine when an object is no
       longer needed and can safely be  freed.   An  object  just
       created  by Tcl_NewObj or Tcl_NewStringObj has refCount 0.
       The macro Tcl_IncrRefCount increments the reference  count
       when  a new reference to the object is created.  The macro
       Tcl_DecrRefCount decrements the count when a reference  is
       no  longer  needed  and,  if  the object's reference count
       drops to zero, frees its storage.   An  object  shared  by
       different  code  or  data  structures has refCount greater
       than 1.  Incrementing an object's reference count  ensures
       that  it won't be freed too early or have its value change
       accidently.

       As an example, the bytecode  interpreter  shares  argument
       objects between calling and called Tcl procedures to avoid
       having to copy objects.  It assigns  the  call's  argument
       objects to the procedure's formal parameter variables.  In
       doing so, it calls Tcl_IncrRefCount to increment the  ref­
       erence  count  of  each  argument since there is now a new
       reference to it  from  the  formal  parameter.   When  the
       called  procedure returns, the interpreter calls Tcl_Decr­
       RefCount to decrement  each  argument's  reference  count.
       When  an object's reference count drops less than or equal
       to zero, Tcl_DecrRefCount reclaims its storage.  Most com­
       mand  procedures  do not have to be concerned about refer­
       ence counting since they use an object's value immediately
       and  don't  retain  a  pointer  to  the  object after they
       return.  However, if they do retain a pointer to an object
       in a data structure, they must be careful to increment its
       reference count since the retained pointer is a new refer­
       ence.

       those for lappend and linsert must be careful  to  copy  a
       shared  object  before changing it.  They must first check
       whether the object is shared by calling Tcl_IsShared.   If
       the  object  is  shared they must copy the object by using
       Tcl_DuplicateObj; this returns  a  new  duplicate  of  the
       original object that has refCount 0.  If the object is not
       shared, the command procedure "owns" the  object  and  can
       safely  modify  it  directly.   For example, the following
       code appears in the command procedure that implements lin­
       sert.   This  procedure modifies the list object passed to
       it in objv[1] by  inserting  objc-3  new  elements  before
       index.
              listPtr = objv[1];
              if (Tcl_IsShared(listPtr)) {
                listPtr = Tcl_DuplicateObj(listPtr);
              }
              result = Tcl_ListObjReplace(interp, listPtr, index, 0, (objc-3), &(objv[3]));
       As  another  example,  incr's command procedure must check
       whether the variable's object is shared before  increment­
       ing  the integer in its internal representation.  If it is
       shared, it needs to duplicate the object in order to avoid
       accidently changing values in other data structures.


SEE ALSO

       Tcl_ConvertToType,   Tcl_GetIntFromObj,  Tcl_ListObjAppen­
       dElement, Tcl_ListObjIndex, Tcl_ListObjReplace, Tcl_Regis­
       terObjType


KEYWORDS

       internal  representation,  object, object creation, object
       type, reference counting, string representation, type con­
       version


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