NAME

       Tcl_SplitList, Tcl_Merge, Tcl_ScanElement, Tcl_ConvertEle­
       ment, Tcl_ScanCountedElement, Tcl_ConvertCountedElement  -
       manipulate Tcl lists


SYNOPSIS

       #include <tcl.h>

       int
       Tcl_SplitList(interp, list, argcPtr, argvPtr)

       char *
       Tcl_Merge(argc, argv)

       int
       Tcl_ScanElement(src, flagsPtr)

       int
       Tcl_ScanCountedElement(src, length, flagsPtr)

       int
       Tcl_ConvertElement(src, dst, flags)

       int
       Tcl_ConvertCountedElement(src, length, dst, flags)


ARGUMENTS

       Tcl_Interp   *interp      (out)     Interpreter to use for
                                           error  reporting.   If
                                           NULL,  then  no  error
                                           message is left.

       char         *list        (in)      Pointer  to  a  string
                                           with    proper    list
                                           structure.

       int          *argcPtr     (out)     Filled in with  number
                                           of elements in list.

       char         ***argvPtr   (out)     *argvPtr    will    be
                                           filled  in  with   the
                                           address of an array of
                                           pointers    to     the
                                           strings  that  are the
                                           extracted elements  of
                                           list.   There  will be
                                           *argcPtr valid entries
                                           in the array, followed
                                           by a NULL entry.

       int          argc         (in)      Number of elements  in
                                           argv.

                                           merge together into  a
                                           single   list.    Each
                                           string will  become  a
                                           separate   element  of
                                           the list.

       char         *src         (in)      String  that   is   to
                                           become an element of a
                                           list.

       int          *flagsPtr    (in)      Pointer  to  word   to
                                           fill  in with informa­
                                           tion about  src.   The
                                           value   of   *flagsPtr
                                           must  be   passed   to
                                           Tcl_ConvertElement.

       int          length       (in)      Number   of  bytes  in
                                           string src.

       char         *dst         (in)      Place  to  copy   con­
                                           verted  list  element.
                                           Must  contain   enough
                                           characters   to   hold
                                           converted string.

       int          flags        (in)      Information about src.
                                           Must be value returned
                                           by  previous  call  to
                                           Tcl_ScanElement,  pos­
                                           sibly    OR-ed    with
                                           TCL_DONT_USE_BRACES.
_________________________________________________________________


DESCRIPTION

       These procedures may be used to disassemble and reassemble
       Tcl lists.  Tcl_SplitList breaks a list up into  its  con­
       stituent  elements,  returning an array of pointers to the
       elements using argcPtr and argvPtr.  While extracting  the
       arguments,  Tcl_SplitList  obeys the usual rules for back­
       slash  substitutions  and  braces.   The  area  of  memory
       pointed to by *argvPtr is dynamically allocated;  in addi­
       tion to the array of pointers, it also holds copies of all
       the  list  elements.  It is the caller's responsibility to
       free up all of this storage.  For  example,  suppose  that
       you have called Tcl_SplitList with the following code:
              int argc, code;
              char *string;
              char **argv;
              ...
              code = Tcl_SplitList(interp, string, &argc, &argv);
       Then  you  should  eventually free the storage with a call

              Tcl_Free((char *) argv);

       Tcl_SplitList normally returns  TCL_OK,  which  means  the
       list was successfully parsed.  If there was a syntax error
       in list, then TCL_ERROR is returned and the  interpreter's
       result will point to an error message describing the prob­
       lem (if interp was not NULL).  If  TCL_ERROR  is  returned
       then  no memory is allocated and *argvPtr is not modified.

       Tcl_Merge is the inverse of  Tcl_SplitList:   it  takes  a
       collection of strings given by argc and argv and generates
       a result string that  has  proper  list  structure.   This
       means  that commands like index may be used to extract the
       original elements again.  In addition, if  the  result  of
       Tcl_Merge  is  passed  to Tcl_Eval, it will be parsed into
       argc words whose values will  be  the  same  as  the  argv
       strings  passed  to  Tcl_Merge.  Tcl_Merge will modify the
       list elements with braces and/or backslashes in  order  to
       produce  proper  Tcl list structure.  The result string is
       dynamically allocated using Tcl_Alloc;   the  caller  must
       eventually release the space using Tcl_Free.

       If the result of Tcl_Merge is passed to Tcl_SplitList, the
       elements returned by Tcl_SplitList will  be  identical  to
       those passed into Tcl_Merge.  However, the converse is not
       true:  if Tcl_SplitList is passed a given string, and  the
       resulting  argc  and  argv  are  passed  to Tcl_Merge, the
       resulting string may not  be  the  same  as  the  original
       string passed to Tcl_SplitList.  This is because Tcl_Merge
       may use backslashes and braces differently than the origi­
       nal string.

       Tcl_ScanElement  and Tcl_ConvertElement are the procedures
       that do all of the real work of  Tcl_Merge.   Tcl_ScanEle­
       ment  scans  its  src  argument  and determines how to use
       backslashes and braces when converting it to a  list  ele­
       ment.  It returns an overestimate of the number of charac­
       ters required to represent src as a list element,  and  it
       stores information in *flagsPtr that is needed by Tcl_Con­
       vertElement.

       Tcl_ConvertElement   is   a   companion    procedure    to
       Tcl_ScanElement.   It does the actual work of converting a
       string to a list element.  Its flags argument must be  the
       same  as  the value returned by Tcl_ScanElement.  Tcl_Con­
       vertElement writes a proper list element to memory  start­
       ing  at  *dst  and  returns a count of the total number of
       characters written, which will be no more than the  result
       returned  by  Tcl_ScanElement.   Tcl_ConvertElement writes
       out only the actual list element without  any  leading  or
       trailing  spaces: it is up to the caller to include spaces
       between adjacent list elements.

       handle  the special characters in src.  Wherever possible,
       it handles special characters by  surrounding  the  string
       with  braces.   This  produces  clean-looking  output, but
       can't be used in some situations, such as  when  src  con­
       tains  unmatched  braces.   In  these situations, Tcl_Con­
       vertElement handles special characters by generating back­
       slash  sequences  for  them.  The caller may insist on the
       second approach by  OR-ing  the  flag  value  returned  by
       Tcl_ScanElement  with  TCL_DONT_USE_BRACES.  Although this
       will produce an uglier result, it is useful in  some  spe­
       cial  situations, such as when Tcl_ConvertElement is being
       used to generate a portion of an argument for a  Tcl  com­
       mand.   In  this  case,  surrounding src with curly braces
       would cause the command not to be parsed correctly.

       Tcl_ScanCountedElement and  Tcl_ConvertCountedElement  are
       the same as Tcl_ScanElement and Tcl_ConvertElement, except
       the length of string src is specified by the length  argu­
       ment, and the string may contain embedded nulls.


KEYWORDS

       backslash, convert, element, list, merge, split, strings


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