1textutil(n) Text and string utilities, macro processing textutil(n)
2______________________________________________________________________________
6
8 textutil - Procedures to manipulate texts and strings.
9
11 package require Tcl 8.2
12 package require textutil ?0.8?
14 ::textutil::adjust string args
16 ::textutil::adjust::readPatterns filename
18 ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined
20 ::textutil::adjust::getPredefined filename
22 ::textutil::indent string prefix ?skip?
24 ::textutil::undent string
26 ::textutil::splitn string ?len?
28 ::textutil::splitx string ?regexp?
30 ::textutil::tabify string ?num?
32 ::textutil::tabify2 string ?num?
34 ::textutil::trim string ?regexp?
36 ::textutil::trimleft string ?regexp?
38 ::textutil::trimright string ?regexp?
40 ::textutil::trimPrefix string prefix
42 ::textutil::trimEmptyHeading string
44 ::textutil::untabify string ?num?
46 ::textutil::untabify2 string ?num?
48 ::textutil::strRepeat text num
50 ::textutil::blank num
52 ::textutil::chop string
54 ::textutil::tail string
56 ::textutil::cap string
58 ::textutil::uncap string
60 ::textutil::longestCommonPrefixList list
62 ::textutil::longestCommonPrefix ?string...?
64______________________________________________________________________________
66
68 The package textutil provides commands that manipulate strings or texts
69 (a.k.a. long strings or string with embedded newlines or paragraphs).
70 It is actually a bundle providing the commands of the six packages
71 textutil::adjust
73 textutil::repeat
75 textutil::split
77 textutil::string
79 textutil::tabify
81 textutil::trim
83 in the namespace textutil.
85 The bundle is deprecated, and it will be removed in a future release of
87 Tcllib, after the next release. It is recommended to use the relevant
88 sub packages instead for whatever functionality is needed by the using
89 package or application.
90 The complete set of procedures is described below.
92 ::textutil::adjust string args
94 Do a justification on the string according to args. The string
95 is taken as one big paragraph, ignoring any newlines. Then the
96 line is formatted according to the options used, and the command
97 return a new string with enough lines to contain all the print‐
98 able chars in the input string. A line is a set of chars between
99 the beginning of the string and a newline, or between 2 new‐
100 lines, or between a newline and the end of the string. If the
101 input string is small enough, the returned string won't contain
102 any newlines.
103 Together with ::textutil::indent it is possible to create prop‐
105 erly wrapped paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.
106 By default, any occurrence of spaces characters or tabulation
108 are replaced by a single space so each word in a line is sepa‐
109 rated from the next one by exactly one space char, and this
110 forms a real line. Each real line is placed in a logical line,
111 which have exactly a given length (see -length option below).
112 The real line may have a lesser length. Again by default, any
113 trailing spaces are ignored before returning the string (see
114 -full option below). The following options may be used after the
115 string parameter, and change the way the command place a real
116 line in a logical line.
117 -full boolean
119 If set to false, any trailing space chars are deleted be‐
120 fore returning the string. If set to true, any trailing
121 space chars are left in the string. Default to false.
122 -hyphenate boolean
124 if set to false, no hyphenation will be done. If set to
125 true, the last word of a line is tried to be hyphenated.
126 Defaults to false. Note: hyphenation patterns must be
127 loaded prior, using the command ::textutil::adjust::read‐
128 Patterns.
129 -justify center|left|plain|right
131 Set the justification of the returned string to center,
132 left, plain or right. By default, it is set to left. The
133 justification means that any line in the returned string
134 but the last one is build according to the value. If the
135 justification is set to plain and the number of printable
136 chars in the last line is less than 90% of the length of
137 a line (see -length), then this line is justified with
138 the left value, avoiding the expansion of this line when
139 it is too small. The meaning of each value is:
140 center The real line is centered in the logical line. If
142 needed, a set of space characters are added at the
143 beginning (half of the needed set) and at the end
144 (half of the needed set) of the line if required
145 (see the option -full).
146 left The real line is set on the left of the logical
148 line. It means that there are no space chars at
149 the beginning of this line. If required, all
150 needed space chars are added at the end of the
151 line (see the option -full).
152 plain The real line is exactly set in the logical line.
154 It means that there are no leading or trailing
155 space chars. All the needed space chars are added
156 in the real line, between 2 (or more) words.
157 right The real line is set on the right of the logical
159 line. It means that there are no space chars at
160 the end of this line, and there may be some space
161 chars at the beginning, despite of the -full op‐
162 tion.
163 -length integer
165 Set the length of the logical line in the string to inte‐
166 ger. integer must be a positive integer value. Defaults
167 to 72.
168 -strictlength boolean
170 If set to false, a line can exceed the specified -length
171 if a single word is longer than -length. If set to true,
172 words that are longer than -length are split so that no
173 line exceeds the specified -length. Defaults to false.
174 ::textutil::adjust::readPatterns filename
176 Loads the internal storage for hyphenation patterns with the
177 contents of the file filename. This has to be done prior to
178 calling command ::textutil::adjust with "-hyphenate true", or
179 the hyphenation process will not work correctly.
180 The package comes with a number of predefined pattern files, and
182 the command ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined can be used to
183 find out their names.
184 ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined
186 This command returns a list containing the names of the hyphena‐
187 tion files coming with this package.
188 ::textutil::adjust::getPredefined filename
190 Use this command to query the package for the full path name of
191 the hyphenation file filename coming with the package. Only the
192 filenames found in the list returned by ::textutil::ad‐
193 just::listPredefined are legal arguments for this command.
194 ::textutil::indent string prefix ?skip?
196 Each line in the string indented by adding the string prefix at
197 its beginning. The modified string is returned as the result of
198 the command.
199 If skip is specified the first skip lines are left untouched.
201 The default for skip is 0, causing the modification of all
202 lines. Negative values for skip are treated like 0. In other
203 words, skip > 0 creates a hanging indentation.
204 Together with ::textutil::adjust it is possible to create prop‐
206 erly wrapped paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.
207 ::textutil::undent string
209 The command computes the common prefix for all lines in string
210 consisting solely out of whitespace, removes this from each line
211 and returns the modified string.
212 Lines containing only whitespace are always reduced to com‐
214 pletely empty lines. They and empty lines are also ignored when
215 computing the prefix to remove.
216 Together with ::textutil::adjust it is possible to create prop‐
218 erly wrapped paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.
219 ::textutil::splitn string ?len?
221 This command splits the given string into chunks of len charac‐
222 ters and returns a list containing these chunks. The argument
223 len defaults to 1 if none is specified. A negative length is not
224 allowed and will cause the command to throw an error. Providing
225 an empty string as input is allowed, the command will then re‐
226 turn an empty list. If the length of the string is not an entire
227 multiple of the chunk length, then the last chunk in the gener‐
228 ated list will be shorter than len.
229 ::textutil::splitx string ?regexp?
231 Split the string and return a list. The string is split accord‐
232 ing to the regular expression regexp instead of a simple list of
233 chars. Note that if you add parenthesis into the regexp, the
234 parentheses part of separator would be added into list as addi‐
235 tional element. If the string is empty the result is the empty
236 list, like for split. If regexp is empty the string is split at
237 every character, like split does. The regular expression regexp
238 defaults to "[\\t \\r\\n]+".
239 ::textutil::tabify string ?num?
241 Tabify the string by replacing any substring of num space chars
242 by a tabulation and return the result as a new string. num de‐
243 faults to 8.
244 ::textutil::tabify2 string ?num?
246 Similar to ::textutil::tabify this command tabifies the string
247 and returns the result as a new string. A different algorithm is
248 used however. Instead of replacing any substring of num spaces
249 this command works more like an editor. num defaults to 8.
250 Each line of the text in string is treated as if there are tab‐
252 stops every num columns. Only sequences of space characters con‐
253 taining more than one space character and found immediately be‐
254 fore a tabstop are replaced with tabs.
255 ::textutil::trim string ?regexp?
257 Remove in string any leading and trailing substring according to
258 the regular expression regexp and return the result as a new
259 string. This apply on any line in the string, that is any sub‐
260 string between 2 newline chars, or between the beginning of the
261 string and a newline, or between a newline and the end of the
262 string, or, if the string contain no newline, between the begin‐
263 ning and the end of the string. The regular expression regexp
264 defaults to "[ \\t]+".
265 ::textutil::trimleft string ?regexp?
267 Remove in string any leading substring according to the regular
268 expression regexp and return the result as a new string. This
269 apply on any line in the string, that is any substring between 2
270 newline chars, or between the beginning of the string and a new‐
271 line, or between a newline and the end of the string, or, if the
272 string contain no newline, between the beginning and the end of
273 the string. The regular expression regexp defaults to "[
274 \\t]+".
275 ::textutil::trimright string ?regexp?
277 Remove in string any trailing substring according to the regular
278 expression regexp and return the result as a new string. This
279 apply on any line in the string, that is any substring between 2
280 newline chars, or between the beginning of the string and a new‐
281 line, or between a newline and the end of the string, or, if the
282 string contain no newline, between the beginning and the end of
283 the string. The regular expression regexp defaults to "[
284 \\t]+".
285 ::textutil::trimPrefix string prefix
287 Removes the prefix from the beginning of string and returns the
288 result. The string is left unchanged if it doesn't have prefix
289 at its beginning.
290 ::textutil::trimEmptyHeading string
292 Looks for empty lines (including lines consisting of only white‐
293 space) at the beginning of the string and removes it. The modi‐
294 fied string is returned as the result of the command.
295 ::textutil::untabify string ?num?
297 Untabify the string by replacing any tabulation char by a sub‐
298 string of num space chars and return the result as a new string.
299 num defaults to 8.
300 ::textutil::untabify2 string ?num?
302 Untabify the string by replacing any tabulation char by a sub‐
303 string of at most num space chars and return the result as a new
304 string. Unlike textutil::untabify each tab is not replaced by a
305 fixed number of space characters. The command overlays each
306 line in the string with tabstops every num columns instead and
307 replaces tabs with just enough space characters to reach the
308 next tabstop. This is the complement of the actions taken by
309 ::textutil::tabify2. num defaults to 8.
310 There is one asymmetry though: A tab can be replaced with a sin‐
312 gle space, but not the other way around.
313 ::textutil::strRepeat text num
315 The implementation depends on the core executing the package.
316 Used string repeat if it is present, or a fast tcl implementa‐
317 tion if it is not. Returns a string containing the text repeated
318 num times. The repetitions are joined without characters between
319 them. A value of num <= 0 causes the command to return an empty
320 string.
321 ::textutil::blank num
323 A convenience command. Returns a string of num spaces.
324 ::textutil::chop string
326 A convenience command. Removes the last character of string and
327 returns the shortened string.
328 ::textutil::tail string
330 A convenience command. Removes the first character of string and
331 returns the shortened string.
332 ::textutil::cap string
334 Capitalizes the first character of string and returns the modi‐
335 fied string.
336 ::textutil::uncap string
338 The complementary operation to ::textutil::cap. Forces the first
339 character of string to lower case and returns the modified
340 string.
341 ::textutil::longestCommonPrefixList list
343 ::textutil::longestCommonPrefix ?string...?
345 Computes the longest common prefix for either the strings given
346 to the command, or the strings specified in the single list, and
347 returns it as the result of the command.
348 If no strings were specified the result is the empty string. If
350 only one string was specified, the string itself is returned, as
351 it is its own longest common prefix.
352
354 This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain
355 bugs and other problems. Please report such in the category textutil
356 of the Tcllib Trackers [http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist]. Please
357 also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either package
358 and/or documentation.
359 When proposing code changes, please provide unified diffs, i.e the out‐
361 put of diff -u.
362 Note further that attachments are strongly preferred over inlined
364 patches. Attachments can be made by going to the Edit form of the
365 ticket immediately after its creation, and then using the left-most
366 button in the secondary navigation bar.
367
369 regexp(n), split(n), string(n)
370
372 TeX, formatting, hyphenation, indenting, paragraph, regular expression,
373 string, trimming
374
376 Text processing
377tcllib 0.8 textutil(n)