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Tcl_StringObj(3)	    Tcl	Library	Procedures	      Tcl_StringObj(3)

______________________________________________________________________________

NAME
       Tcl_NewStringObj,   Tcl_NewUnicodeObj,	Tcl_SetStringObj,  Tcl_SetUni-
       codeObj,	 Tcl_GetStringFromObj,	Tcl_GetString,	Tcl_GetUnicodeFromObj,
       Tcl_GetUnicode,	  Tcl_GetUniChar,   Tcl_GetCharLength,	 Tcl_GetRange,
       Tcl_AppendToObj,	 Tcl_AppendUnicodeToObj,  Tcl_AppendObjToObj,  Tcl_Ap-
       pendStringsToObj, Tcl_AppendLimitedToObj, Tcl_Format, Tcl_AppendFormat-
       ToObj,  Tcl_ObjPrintf, Tcl_AppendPrintfToObj, Tcl_SetObjLength, Tcl_At-
       temptSetObjLength, Tcl_ConcatObj	- manipulate Tcl values	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_GetUnicodeFromObj(objPtr, lengthPtr)

       Tcl_UniChar *
       Tcl_GetUnicode(objPtr)

       int
       Tcl_GetUniChar(objPtr, index)

       Tcl_Size
       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
       Tcl_AppendStringsToObj(objPtr, string, string, ... (char	*)NULL)

       void
       Tcl_AppendLimitedToObj(objPtr, bytes, length, limit, ellipsis)

       Tcl_Obj *
       Tcl_Format(interp, format, objc,	objv)

       int
       Tcl_AppendFormatToObj(interp, objPtr, format, objc, objv)

       Tcl_Obj *
       Tcl_ObjPrintf(format, ...)

       void
       Tcl_AppendPrintfToObj(objPtr, format, ...)

       void
       Tcl_SetObjLength(objPtr,	newLength)

       int
       Tcl_AttemptSetObjLength(objPtr, newLength)

       Tcl_Obj *
       Tcl_ConcatObj(objc, objv)

ARGUMENTS
       const char *bytes (in)			     Points to the first  byte
						     of	 an array of UTF-8-en-
						     coded bytes used  to  set
						     or	 append	 to  a	string
						     value.  This  byte	 array
						     may contain embedded null
						     characters	  unless  num-
						     Chars is negative.	  (Ap-
						     plications	 needing  null
						     bytes  should   represent
						     them  as the two-byte se-
						     quence   \300\200,	   use
						     Tcl_ExternalToUtf to con-
						     vert,  or	Tcl_NewByteAr-
						     rayObj if the string is a
						     collection	 of   uninter-
						     preted bytes.)

       Tcl_Size	length (in)			     The  number  of  bytes to
						     copy from bytes when ini-
						     tializing,	 setting,   or
						     appending	 to  a	string
						     value.  If	negative,  all
						     bytes  up	to  the	 first
						     null are used.

       const Tcl_UniChar *unicode (in)		     Points to the first  byte
						     of	 an  array  of Unicode
						     characters	used to	set or
						     append to a string	value.
						     This byte array may  con-
						     tain  embedded null char-
						     acters unless numChars is
						     negative.

       Tcl_Size	numChars (in)			     The  number  of   Unicode
						     characters	 to  copy from
						     unicode  when  initializ-
						     ing,  setting, or append-
						     ing to  a	string	value.
						     If	 negative, all charac-
						     ters up to	the first null
						     character are used.

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

       Tcl_Size	first (in)			     The  index	 of  the first
						     Unicode character in  the
						     Unicode  range  to	be re-
						     turned as a new value. If
						     negative, behave the same
						     as	if the value was 0.

       Tcl_Size	last (in)			     The  index	 of  the  last
						     Unicode  character	in the
						     Unicode range to  be  re-
						     turned as a new value. If
						     negative,	take all char-
						     acters up to the last one
						     available.

       Tcl_Obj *objPtr (in/out)			     A pointer to a  value  to
						     read,  or	to an unshared
						     value to modify.

       Tcl_Obj *appendObjPtr (in)		     The value	to  append  to
						     objPtr  in	Tcl_AppendObj-
						     ToObj.

       Tcl_Size	| int *lengthPtr (out)		     The    location	 where
						     Tcl_GetStringFromObj will
						     store  the	 length	 of  a
						     value's string  represen-
						     tation.  May be (Tcl_Size
						     *)NULL  when not used. If
						     it	points to  a  variable
						     which    type    is   not
						     Tcl_Size,	 a    compiler
						     warning  will  be	gener-
						     ated.  If your extensions
						     is	    compiled	  with
						     -DTCL_8_API,  this	 func-
						     tion   will   panic   for
						     strings  with  more  than
						     INT_MAX bytes/characters,
						     otherwise	expect	it  to
						     crash.

       const char *string (in)			     Null-terminated	string
						     value to  append  to  ob-
						     jPtr.

       Tcl_Size	limit (in)			     Maximum  number  of bytes
						     to	be appended.

       const char *ellipsis (in)		     Suffix to append when the
						     limit  leads  to	string
						     truncation.   If  NULL is
						     passed  then  the	suffix
						     "..."  is used.

       const char *format (in)			     Format control string in-
						     cluding	%   conversion
						     specifiers.

       Tcl_Size	objc (in)			     The number	of elements to
						     format or concatenate.

       Tcl_Obj *objv[] (in)			     The array	of  values  to
						     format or concatenate.

       Tcl_Size	newLength (in)			     New length	for the	string
						     value  of objPtr, not in-
						     cluding  the  final  null
						     character.
______________________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION
       The  procedures	described  in this manual entry	allow Tcl values to be
       manipulated as string values.  They use the internal representation  of
       the  value to store additional information to make the string manipula-
       tions more efficient.  In particular, they make a series	of append  op-
       erations	 efficient by allocating extra storage space for the string so
       that it does not	have to	be copied for each append.  Also, indexing and
       length computations are optimized because the Unicode string  represen-
       tation  is calculated and cached	as needed.  When using the Tcl_Append*
       family of functions where the interpreter's result is the  value	 being
       appended	 to,  it  is important to call Tcl_ResetResult first to	ensure
       you are not unintentionally appending to	existing data  in  the	result
       value.

       Tcl_NewStringObj	 and  Tcl_SetStringObj create a	new value or modify an
       existing	value to hold a	copy of	the string given by bytes and  length.
       Tcl_NewUnicodeObj and Tcl_SetUnicodeObj create a	new value or modify an
       existing	 value	to  hold a copy	of the Unicode string given by unicode
       and numChars.  Tcl_NewStringObj and Tcl_NewUnicodeObj return a  pointer
       to  a  newly  created value with	reference count	zero.  All four	proce-
       dures set the value to hold a copy of the specified  string.   Tcl_Set-
       StringObj  and  Tcl_SetUnicodeObj free any old string representation as
       well as any old internal	representation of the value.

       Tcl_GetStringFromObj and	Tcl_GetString return a value's	string	repre-
       sentation.   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  value's  UTF string	representation is invalid (its
       byte pointer is NULL), the string representation	 is  regenerated  from
       the value's internal representation.  The storage referenced by the re-
       turned  byte  pointer is	owned by the value manager.  It	is passed back
       as a writable pointer so	 that  extension  author  creating  their  own
       Tcl_ObjType will	be able	to modify the string representation within the
       Tcl_UpdateStringProc  of	 their	Tcl_ObjType.   Except for that limited
       purpose,	the pointer returned by	Tcl_GetStringFromObj or	 Tcl_GetString
       should be treated as read-only.	It is recommended that this pointer be
       assigned	 to a (const char *) variable.	Even in	the limited situations
       where writing to	this pointer is	acceptable, one	should	take  care  to
       respect	the copy-on-write semantics required by	Tcl_Obj's, with	appro-
       priate calls to Tcl_IsShared and	Tcl_DuplicateObj prior to any in-place
       modification of the string representation.  The procedure Tcl_GetString
       is used in the common case where	the caller does	not need the length of
       the string representation.

       Tcl_GetUnicodeFromObj and Tcl_GetUnicode	return a value's  value	 as  a
       Unicode	string.	  This	is  given  by  the  returned  pointer and (for
       Tcl_GetUnicodeFromObj) length, which is stored in lengthPtr  if	it  is
       non-NULL.  The storage referenced by the	returned byte pointer is owned
       by  the	value  manager	and should not be modified by the caller.  The
       procedure Tcl_GetUnicode	is used	in the common case  where  the	caller
       does not	need the length	of the unicode string representation.

       Tcl_GetUniChar  returns	the  index'th character	in the value's Unicode
       representation. If the index is out of range it returns -1;

       Tcl_GetRange returns a newly created value comprised of the  characters
       between first and last (inclusive) in the value's Unicode or byte-array
       representation.	 If  the value is not a	byte-array and the values Uni-
       code representation is invalid, the Unicode representation is  regener-
       ated  from  the	value's	 string	representation.	 If first is negative,
       then the	returned string	starts at the beginning	of the value. If  last
       is negative, then the returned string ends at the end of	the value.

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

       Tcl_AppendToObj appends the data	given  by  bytes  and  length  to  the
       string  representation  of the value specified by objPtr.  If the value
       has an invalid string representation, then an attempt is	made  to  con-
       vert  bytes  to	the  Unicode format.  If the conversion	is successful,
       then the	converted form of bytes	is appended  to	 the  value's  Unicode
       representation.	 Otherwise,  the value's Unicode representation	is in-
       validated and converted to the UTF format, and bytes is appended	to the
       value's new string representation.  Eventually buffer growth is done by
       large allocations to optimize multiple calls.

       Tcl_AppendUnicodeToObj appends the Unicode string given by unicode  and
       numChars	to the value specified by objPtr.  If the value	has an invalid
       Unicode representation, then unicode is converted to the	UTF format and
       appended	 to  the value's string	representation.	 Appends are optimized
       to handle repeated appends relatively  efficiently  (it	over-allocates
       the  string or Unicode space to avoid repeated reallocations and	copies
       of value'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 ap-
       pended 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 (char *)NULL to indicate the end of the list.

       Tcl_AppendLimitedToObj is similar to Tcl_AppendToObj except that	it im-
       poses  a	 limit on how many bytes are appended.	This can be handy when
       the string to be	appended might be very large, but the value being con-
       structed	should not be allowed to grow without bound. A common usage is
       when constructing an error message, where the end result	should be kept
       short enough to be read.	 Bytes from bytes are appended to objPtr,  but
       no  more	 than  limit bytes total are to	be appended. If	the limit pre-
       vents all length	bytes that are available from being appended, then the
       appending is done so that the last bytes	appended are from  the	string
       ellipsis. This allows for an indication of the truncation to be left in
       the  string.   When  length is negative,	all bytes up to	the first zero
       byte are	appended, subject to the limit.	When ellipsis is NULL, the de-
       fault string ...	is used. When ellipsis is non-NULL, it must point to a
       zero-byte-terminated string in Tcl's internal UTF encoding.  The	number
       of bytes	appended can be	less than the lesser of	length and limit  when
       appending  fewer	 bytes	is  necessary  to append only whole multi-byte
       characters.

       Tcl_Format is the C-level interface to the engine of  the  format  com-
       mand.  The actual command procedure for format is little	more than

	      Tcl_Format(interp, Tcl_GetString(objv[1]), objc-2, objv+2);

       The  objc  Tcl_Obj values in objv are formatted into a string according
       to the conversion specification in format argument, following the docu-
       mentation for the format	command.  The resulting	 formatted  string  is
       converted to a new Tcl_Obj with refcount	of zero	and returned.  If some
       error  happens  during  production of the formatted string, NULL	is re-
       turned, and an error message is recorded	in interp, if interp  is  non-
       NULL.

       Tcl_AppendFormatToObj  is  an  appending	alternative form of Tcl_Format
       with functionality equivalent to:

	      Tcl_Obj *newPtr =	Tcl_Format(interp, format, objc, objv);
	      if (newPtr == NULL) return TCL_ERROR;
	      Tcl_AppendObjToObj(objPtr, newPtr);
	      Tcl_DecrRefCount(newPtr);
	      return TCL_OK;

       but with	greater	convenience and	efficiency when	 the  appending	 func-
       tionality is needed.

       Tcl_ObjPrintf serves as a replacement for the common sequence

	      char buf[SOME_SUITABLE_LENGTH];
	      sprintf(buf, format, ...);
	      Tcl_NewStringObj(buf, -1);

       but  with  greater  convenience	and  no	 need  to determine SOME_SUIT-
       ABLE_LENGTH. The	formatting is done with	the same core  formatting  en-
       gine  used  by  Tcl_Format.  This means the set of supported conversion
       specifiers is that of the format	command	but the	behavior is as similar
       as possible to sprintf. The "hh"	and  (Microsoft-specific)  "w"	format
       specifiers  are	not  supported.	The "L"	format specifier means that an
       "mp_int *" argument is expected (or a "long double" in combination with
       [aAeEgGaA]). When a conversion specifier	passed	to  Tcl_ObjPrintf  in-
       cludes a	precision, the value is	taken as a number of bytes, as sprintf
       does,  and not as a number of characters, as format does.  This is done
       on the assumption that C	code is	more likely to know how	many bytes  it
       is  passing  around  than  the number of	encoded	characters those bytes
       happen to represent.  The variable number of arguments passed in	should
       be of the types that would be suitable for passing to sprintf.  Note in
       this example usage, x is	of type	int.

	      int x = 5;
	      Tcl_Obj *objPtr =	Tcl_ObjPrintf("Value is	%d", x);

       If the value of format contains	internal  inconsistencies  or  invalid
       specifier  formats,  the	 formatted  string  result produced by Tcl_Ob-
       jPrintf will be an error	message	describing the error.  It is  impossi-
       ble  however  to	 provide runtime protection against mismatches between
       the format and any subsequent arguments.	 Compile-time  protection  may
       be provided by some compilers.

       Tcl_AppendPrintfToObj is	an appending alternative form of Tcl_ObjPrintf
       with functionality equivalent to

	      Tcl_Obj *newPtr =	Tcl_ObjPrintf(format, ...);
	      Tcl_AppendObjToObj(objPtr, newPtr);
	      Tcl_DecrRefCount(newPtr);

       but  with  greater  convenience and efficiency when the appending func-
       tionality is needed.

       When printing integer  types  defined  by  Tcl,	such  as  Tcl_Size  or
       Tcl_WideInt,  a format size specifier is	needed as the integer width of
       those types is dependent	on the Tcl version, platform and compiler.  To
       accomodate  these  differences,	Tcl  defines  C	 preprocessor  symbols
       TCL_LL_MODIFER and TCL_SIZE_MODIFER for use when	formatting  values  of
       type  Tcl_WideInt and Tcl_Size respectively. Their usage	is illustrated
       by

	      Tcl_WideInt wide;
	      Tcl_Size len;
	      Tcl_Obj *wideObj = Tcl_ObjPrintf("wide = %" TCL_LL_MODIFIER "d", wide);
	      Tcl_Obj *lenObj =	Tcl_ObjPrintf("len = %"	TCL_SIZE_MODIFIER "d", len);

       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 value's string, then the	string space is	 real-
       located 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 val-
       ues.   If the newLength argument	is less	than the current length	of the
       value's string, with objPtr->length is reduced without reallocating the
       string space; the original allocated size for the string	is recorded in
       the value, 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].

       Tcl_AttemptSetObjLength is identical in	function  to  Tcl_SetObjLength
       except that if sufficient memory	to satisfy the request cannot be allo-
       cated,  it  does	 not  cause  the  Tcl  interpreter to panic.  Thus, if
       newLength is greater than the space allocated for the  value's  string,
       and  there  is  not  enough  memory  available  to satisfy the request,
       Tcl_AttemptSetObjLength will take no action and return  0  to  indicate
       failure.	  If  there  is	 enough	memory to satisfy the request, Tcl_At-
       temptSetObjLength behaves just like Tcl_SetObjLength and	returns	 1  to
       indicate	success.

       The  Tcl_ConcatObj  function  returns a new string value	whose value is
       the space-separated concatenation of the	string representations of  all
       of  the	values 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 consists of
       nothing but white space,	then that  value  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
       value whose ref count is	zero.

REFERENCE COUNT	MANAGEMENT
       Tcl_NewStringObj,  Tcl_NewUnicodeObj,  Tcl_Format,  Tcl_ObjPrintf,  and
       Tcl_ConcatObj  always  return  a	 zero-reference	 object,   much	  like
       Tcl_NewObj.

       Tcl_GetStringFromObj, Tcl_GetString, Tcl_GetUnicodeFromObj, Tcl_GetUni-
       code, Tcl_GetUniChar, Tcl_GetCharLength,	and Tcl_GetRange all only work
       with  an	 existing value; they do not manipulate	its reference count in
       any way.

       Tcl_SetStringObj,  Tcl_SetUnicodeObj,  Tcl_AppendToObj,	Tcl_AppendUni-
       codeToObj,   Tcl_AppendObjToObj,	  Tcl_AppendStringsToObj,  Tcl_Append-
       StringsToObjVA, Tcl_AppendLimitedToObj, Tcl_AppendFormatToObj,  Tcl_Ap-
       pendPrintfToObj,	 Tcl_SetObjLength, and Tcl_AttemptSetObjLength and re-
       quire their objPtr to be	an unshared value (i.e,	a reference  count  no
       more than 1) as they will modify	it.

       Additional  arguments to	the above functions (the appendObjPtr argument
       to Tcl_AppendObjToObj, values  in  the  objv  argument  to  Tcl_Format,
       Tcl_AppendFormatToObj, and Tcl_ConcatObj) can have any reference	count,
       but reference counts of zero are	not recommended.

       Tcl_Format and Tcl_AppendFormatToObj may	modify the interpreter result,
       which involves changing the reference count of a	value.

SEE ALSO
       Tcl_NewObj(3),	Tcl_IncrRefCount(3),  Tcl_DecrRefCount(3),  format(n),
       sprintf(3)

KEYWORDS
       append, internal	 representation,  value,  value	 type,	string	value,
       string type, string representation, concat, concatenate,	unicode

Tcl				      8.1		      Tcl_StringObj(3)

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