| 1 | '\" |
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| 2 | '\" Copyright (c) 1993 The Regents of the University of California. |
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| 3 | '\" Copyright (c) 1994-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc. |
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| 4 | '\" |
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| 5 | '\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution |
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| 6 | '\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES. |
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| 7 | '\" |
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| 8 | '\" RCS: @(#) $Id: case.n,v 1.3 2000/09/07 14:27:46 poenitz Exp $ |
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| 9 | '\" |
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| 10 | .so man.macros |
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| 11 | .TH case n 7.0 Tcl "Tcl Built-In Commands" |
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| 12 | .BS |
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| 13 | '\" Note: do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below! |
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| 14 | .SH NAME |
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| 15 | case \- Evaluate one of several scripts, depending on a given value |
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| 16 | .SH SYNOPSIS |
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| 17 | \fBcase\fI string \fR?\fBin\fR? \fIpatList body \fR?\fIpatList body \fR...? |
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| 18 | .sp |
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| 19 | \fBcase\fI string \fR?\fBin\fR? {\fIpatList body \fR?\fIpatList body \fR...?} |
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| 20 | .BE |
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| 21 | |
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| 22 | .SH DESCRIPTION |
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| 23 | .PP |
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| 24 | \fINote: the \fBcase\fI command is obsolete and is supported only |
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| 25 | for backward compatibility. At some point in the future it may be |
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| 26 | removed entirely. You should use the \fBswitch\fI command instead.\fR |
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| 27 | .PP |
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| 28 | The \fBcase\fR command matches \fIstring\fR against each of |
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| 29 | the \fIpatList\fR arguments in order. |
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| 30 | Each \fIpatList\fR argument is a list of one or |
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| 31 | more patterns. If any of these patterns matches \fIstring\fR then |
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| 32 | \fBcase\fR evaluates the following \fIbody\fR argument |
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| 33 | by passing it recursively to the Tcl interpreter and returns the result |
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| 34 | of that evaluation. |
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| 35 | Each \fIpatList\fR argument consists of a single |
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| 36 | pattern or list of patterns. Each pattern may contain any of the wild-cards |
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| 37 | described under \fBstring match\fR. If a \fIpatList\fR |
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| 38 | argument is \fBdefault\fR, the corresponding body will be evaluated |
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| 39 | if no \fIpatList\fR matches \fIstring\fR. If no \fIpatList\fR argument |
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| 40 | matches \fIstring\fR and no default is given, then the \fBcase\fR |
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| 41 | command returns an empty string. |
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| 42 | .PP |
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| 43 | Two syntaxes are provided for the \fIpatList\fR and \fIbody\fR arguments. |
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| 44 | The first uses a separate argument for each of the patterns and commands; |
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| 45 | this form is convenient if substitutions are desired on some of the |
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| 46 | patterns or commands. |
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| 47 | The second form places all of the patterns and commands together into |
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| 48 | a single argument; the argument must have proper list structure, with |
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| 49 | the elements of the list being the patterns and commands. |
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| 50 | The second form makes it easy to construct multi-line case commands, |
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| 51 | since the braces around the whole list make it unnecessary to include a |
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| 52 | backslash at the end of each line. |
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| 53 | Since the \fIpatList\fR arguments are in braces in the second form, |
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| 54 | no command or variable substitutions are performed on them; this makes |
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| 55 | the behavior of the second form different than the first form in some |
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| 56 | cases. |
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| 57 | |
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| 58 | .SH "SEE ALSO" |
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| 59 | switch(n) |
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| 60 | |
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| 61 | .SH KEYWORDS |
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| 62 | case, match, regular expression |
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