1proc(n) Tcl Built-In Commands proc(n)
2______________________________________________________________________________
6
8 proc - Create a Tcl procedure
9
11 proc name args body
12_________________________________________________________________
13
16 The proc command creates a new Tcl procedure named name, replacing any
17 existing command or procedure there may have been by that name. When‐
18 ever the new command is invoked, the contents of body will be executed
19 by the Tcl interpreter. Normally, name is unqualified (does not
20 include the names of any containing namespaces), and the new procedure
21 is created in the current namespace. If name includes any namespace
22 qualifiers, the procedure is created in the specified namespace. Args
23 specifies the formal arguments to the procedure. It consists of a
24 list, possibly empty, each of whose elements specifies one argument.
25 Each argument specifier is also a list with either one or two fields.
26 If there is only a single field in the specifier then it is the name of
27 the argument; if there are two fields, then the first is the argument
28 name and the second is its default value.
29 When name is invoked a local variable will be created for each of the
31 formal arguments to the procedure; its value will be the value of cor‐
32 responding argument in the invoking command or the argument's default
33 value. Arguments with default values need not be specified in a proce‐
34 dure invocation. However, there must be enough actual arguments for
35 all the formal arguments that don't have defaults, and there must not
36 be any extra actual arguments. There is one special case to permit
37 procedures with variable numbers of arguments. If the last formal
38 argument has the name args, then a call to the procedure may contain
39 more actual arguments than the procedure has formals. In this case,
40 all of the actual arguments starting at the one that would be assigned
41 to args are combined into a list (as if the list command had been
42 used); this combined value is assigned to the local variable args.
43 When body is being executed, variable names normally refer to local
45 variables, which are created automatically when referenced and deleted
46 when the procedure returns. One local variable is automatically cre‐
47 ated for each of the procedure's arguments. Global variables can only
48 be accessed by invoking the global command or the upvar command.
49 Namespace variables can only be accessed by invoking the variable com‐
50 mand or the upvar command.
51 The proc command returns an empty string. When a procedure is invoked,
53 the procedure's return value is the value specified in a return com‐
54 mand. If the procedure doesn't execute an explicit return, then its
55 return value is the value of the last command executed in the proce‐
56 dure's body. If an error occurs while executing the procedure body,
57 then the procedure-as-a-whole will return that same error.
58
60 This is a procedure that accepts arbitrarily many arguments and prints
61 them out, one by one.
62 proc printArguments args {
63 foreach arg $args {
64 puts $arg
65 }
66 }
67 This procedure is a bit like the incr command, except it multiplies the
69 contents of the named variable by the value, which defaults to 2:
70 proc mult {varName {multiplier 2}} {
71 upvar 1 $varName var
72 set var [expr {$var * $multiplier}]
73 }
74
77 info(n), unknown(n)
78
81 argument, procedure
82Tcl proc(n)