NAME

       Tcl_NewStringObj,   Tcl_NewUnicodeObj,   Tcl_SetStringObj,
       Tcl_SetUnicodeObj,  Tcl_GetStringFromObj,   Tcl_GetString,
       Tcl_GetUnicode,     Tcl_GetUniChar,     Tcl_GetCharLength,
       Tcl_GetRange,   Tcl_AppendToObj,   Tcl_AppendUnicodeToObj,
       Tcl_AppendStringsToObj,          Tcl_AppendStringsToObjVA,
       Tcl_AppendObjToObj,  Tcl_SetObjLength,   Tcl_ConcatObj   -
       manipulate Tcl objects as strings


SYNOPSIS

       #include <tcl.h>

       Tcl_Obj *
       Tcl_NewStringObj(bytes, length)

       Tcl_Obj *                                                  |
       Tcl_NewUnicodeObj(unicode, numChars)                       |

       void
       Tcl_SetStringObj(objPtr, bytes, length)

       void                                                       |
       Tcl_SetUnicodeObj(objPtr, unicode, numChars)               |

       char *
       Tcl_GetStringFromObj(objPtr, lengthPtr)

       char *
       Tcl_GetString(objPtr)

       Tcl_UniChar *                                              |
       Tcl_GetUnicode(objPtr)                                     |

       Tcl_UniChar                                                |
       Tcl_GetUniChar(objPtr, index)                              |

       int                                                        |
       Tcl_GetCharLength(objPtr)                                  |

       Tcl_Obj *                                                  |
       Tcl_GetRange(objPtr, first, last)                          |

       void
       Tcl_AppendToObj(objPtr, bytes, length)

       void                                                       |
       Tcl_AppendUnicodeToObj(objPtr, unicode, numChars)          |

       void
       Tcl_AppendObjToObj(objPtr, appendObjPtr)

       void


       void
       Tcl_AppendStringsToObjVA(objPtr, argList)

       void
       Tcl_SetObjLength(objPtr, newLength)

       Tcl_Obj *
       Tcl_ConcatObj(objc, objv)


ARGUMENTS

       char         *bytes          (in)      Points to the first
                                              byte of an array of
                                              bytes  used  to set
                                              or  append   to   a
                                              string      object.
                                              This byte array may
                                              contain    embedded
                                              null  bytes  unless
                                              length is negative.

       int          length          (in)      The number of bytes
                                              to  copy from bytes
                                              when  initializing,
                                              setting, or append­
                                              ing  to  a   string
                                              object.   If  nega­
                                              tive, all bytes  up
                                              to  the  first null
                                              are used.

       Tcl_UniChar  *unicode        (in)      Points to the first
                                              byte of an array of
                                              Unicode  characters
                                              used   to   set  or
                                              append to a  string
                                              object.   This byte
                                              array  may  contain
                                              embedded null char­
                                              acters unless  num­
                                              Chars  is negative. |

       int          numChars        (in)                                 ||
                                              The  number of Uni­ |
                                              code characters  to |
                                              copy  from  unicode |
                                              when  initializing, |
                                              setting, or append­ |
                                              ing  to  a   string |
                                              object.   If  nega­ |
                                              tive,  all  charac­ |
                                              ters   up   to  the |
                                              first          null |


       int          index           (in)                                 ||
                                              The  index  of  the |
                                              Unicode   character |
                                              to return.          |

       int          first           (in)                                 ||
                                              The  index  of  the |
                                              first Unicode char­ |
                                              acter in  the  Uni­ |
                                              code  range  to  be |
                                              returned as  a  new |
                                              object.             |

       int          last            (in)                                 ||
                                              The  index  of  the |
                                              last  Unicode char­ |
                                              acter in  the  Uni­ |
                                              code  range  to  be |
                                              returned as  a  new |
                                              object.

       Tcl_Obj      *objPtr         (in/out)  Points to an object
                                              to manipulate.

       Tcl_Obj      *appendObjPtr   (in)      The    object    to
                                              append to objPtr in
                                              Tcl_AppendObjToObj.

       int          *lengthPtr      (out)     If   non-NULL,  the
                                              location      where
                                              Tcl_GetStringFro­
                                              mObj will store the
                                              the  length  of  an
                                              object's     string
                                              representation.

       char         *string         (in)      Null-terminated
                                              string   value   to
                                              append to objPtr.

       va_list      argList         (in)      An   argument  list
                                              which   must   have
                                              been    initialised
                                              using
                                              TCL_VARARGS_START,
                                              and  cleared  using
                                              va_end.

       int          newLength       (in)      New  length for the
                                              string   value   of
                                              objPtr, not includ­
                                              ing the final  NULL


       int          objc            (in)      The  number of ele­
                                              ments  to  concate­
                                              nate.

       Tcl_Obj      *objv[]         (in)      The     array    of
                                              objects to concate­
                                              nate.
_________________________________________________________________


DESCRIPTION

       The  procedures  described  in this manual entry allow Tcl
       objects to be manipulated as string values.  They use  the
       internal  representation of the object to store additional
       information to make the string  manipulations  more  effi­
       cient.  In particular, they make a series of append opera­
       tions efficient by allocating extra storage space for  the
       string  so  that  it  doesn't  have  to be copied for each
       append.  Also, indexing and length computations are  opti­ |
       mized  because the Unicode string representation is calcu­ |
       lated and cached as needed.

       Tcl_NewStringObj and Tcl_SetStringObj create a new  object |
       or  modify an existing object to hold a copy of the string |
       given  by  bytes  and   length.    Tcl_NewUnicodeObj   and |
       Tcl_SetUnicodeObj  create a new object or modify an exist­ |
       ing object to hold a copy of the Unicode string  given  by |
       unicode  and  numChars.   Tcl_NewStringObj and Tcl_NewUni­ |
       codeObj return a pointer to a newly  created  object  with |
       reference  count zero.  All four procedures set the object |
       to hold a copy of the specified string.   Tcl_SetStringObj |
       and  Tcl_SetUnicodeObj  free any old string representation |
       as well as any old internal representation of the  object.

       Tcl_GetStringFromObj  and Tcl_GetString return an object's
       string representation.  This is given by the returned byte
       pointer  and  (for  Tcl_GetStringFromObj) length, which is
       stored in lengthPtr if it is non-NULL.   If  the  object's
       UTF  string representation is invalid (its byte pointer is
       NULL), the string representation is regenerated  from  the
       object's  internal representation.  The storage referenced
       by the returned byte pointer is owned by the  object  man­
       ager and should not be modified by the caller.  The proce­
       dure Tcl_GetString is used in the common  case  where  the
       caller  does not need the length of the string representa­
       tion.

       Tcl_GetUnicode returns an  object's  value  as  a  Unicode |
       string.   Tcl_GetUniChar returns the index'th character in |
       the object's Unicode representation.                       |

       Tcl_GetRange returns a newly created object  comprised  of |

       object's Unicode representation.  If the object's  Unicode |
       representation  is  invalid, the Unicode representation is |
       regenerated from the object's string representation.       |

       Tcl_GetCharLength returns the  number  of  characters  (as |
       opposed to bytes) in the string object.                    |

       Tcl_AppendToObj appends the data given by bytes and length |
       to the string representation of the  object  specified  by |
       objPtr.   If  the object has an invalid string representa­ |
       tion, then an attempt is made to convert bytes is  to  the |
       Unicode format.  If the conversion is successful, then the |
       converted form of bytes is appended to the  object's  Uni­ |
       code representation.  Otherwise, the object's Unicode rep­ |
       resentation is invalidated and converted to the  UTF  for­ |
       mat, and bytes is appended to the object's new string rep­ |
       resentation.                                               |

       Tcl_AppendUnicodeToObj appends the Unicode string given by |
       unicode  and  numChars  to the object specified by objPtr. |
       If the object has an invalid Unicode representation,  then |
       unicode is converted to the UTF format and appended to the |
       object's string representation.  Appends are optimized  to |
       handle repeated appends relatively efficiently (it overal­ |
       locates the string or  Unicode  space  to  avoid  repeated |
       reallocations and copies of object's string value).        |

       Tcl_AppendObjToObj  is  similar to Tcl_AppendToObj, but it |
       appends the string or Unicode value (whichever exists  and |
       is  best  suited to be appended to objPtr) of appendObjPtr |
       to objPtr.

       Tcl_AppendStringsToObj  is  similar   to   Tcl_AppendToObj
       except that it can be passed more than one value to append
       and each value must be a null-terminated string (i.e. none
       of  the values may contain internal null characters).  Any
       number of string arguments may be provided, but  the  last
       argument must be a NULL pointer to indicate the end of the
       list.

       Tcl_AppendStringsToObjVA  is  the  same   as   Tcl_Append­
       StringsToObj except that instead of taking a variable num­
       ber of arguments it takes an argument list.

       The Tcl_SetObjLength procedure changes the length  of  the
       string  value  of  its  objPtr argument.  If the newLength
       argument is greater  than  the  space  allocated  for  the
       object's  string, then the string space is reallocated and
       the old value is  copied  to  the  new  space;  the  bytes
       between  the  old  length of the string and the new length
       may have arbitrary values.  If the newLength  argument  is
       less  than the current length of the object's string, with
       objPtr->length is reduced without reallocating the  string

       recorded in the object, so that the string length  can  be
       enlarged  in a subsequent call to Tcl_SetObjLength without
       reallocating  storage.   In  all  cases   Tcl_SetObjLength
       leaves a null character at objPtr->bytes[newLength].

       The  Tcl_ConcatObj  function  returns  a new string object
       whose value is the space-separated  concatenation  of  the
       string  representations  of all of the objects in the objv
       array. Tcl_ConcatObj eliminates leading and trailing white
       space  as it copies the string representations of the objv
       array to the result. If an element of the objv array  con­
       sists  of  nothing  but  white  space, then that object is
       ignored entirely. This white-space removal  was  added  to
       make  the  output  of  the concat command cleaner-looking.
       Tcl_ConcatObj returns a pointer to a newly-created  object
       whose ref count is zero.


SEE ALSO

       Tcl_NewObj, Tcl_IncrRefCount, Tcl_DecrRefCount


KEYWORDS

       append,  internal  representation,  object,  object  type,
       string object, string type, string representation, concat,
       concatenate, unicode


Man(1) output converted with man2html