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authordkf <donal.k.fellows@manchester.ac.uk>2004-01-17 00:28:07 (GMT)
committerdkf <donal.k.fellows@manchester.ac.uk>2004-01-17 00:28:07 (GMT)
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Basic implementation of TIP#57 - TclX's [lassign] command into Tcl core
Not a direct copy * Better use of Tcl object API * More extensive test suite * More extensive documentation
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+'\"
+'\" Copyright (c) 1992-1999 Karl Lehenbauer & Mark Diekhans
+'\" Copyright (c) 2004 Donal K. Fellows
+'\"
+'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
+'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
+'\"
+'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: lassign.n,v 1.1 2004/01/17 00:28:08 dkf Exp $
+'\"
+.so man.macros
+.TH lassign n 8.5 Tcl "Tcl Built-In Commands"
+.BS
+'\" Note: do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below!
+.SH NAME
+lassign \- Assign list elements to variables
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+\fBlassign \fIlist varName \fR?\fIvarName ...\fR?
+.BE
+
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.PP
+This command treats the value \fIlist\fR as a list and assigns
+successive elements from that list to the variables given by the
+\fIvarName\fR arguments in order. If there are more variable names
+than list elements, the remaining variables are set to the empty
+string. If there are more list elements than variables, a list of
+unassigned elements is returned.
+.SH EXAMPLES
+An illustration of how multiple assignment works, and what happens
+when there are either too few or too many elements.
+.CS
+lassign {a b c} x y z ;# Empty return
+puts $x ;# Prints "a"
+puts $y ;# Prints "b"
+puts $z ;# Prints "c"
+
+lassign {d e} x y z ;# Empty return
+puts $x ;# Prints "d"
+puts $y ;# Prints "e"
+puts $z ;# Prints ""
+
+lassign {f g h i} x y ;# Returns "h i"
+puts $x ;# Prints "f"
+puts $y ;# Prints "g"
+.CE
+The \fBlassign\fR command has other uses. It can be used to create
+the analogue of the "shift" command in many shell languages like this:
+.CS
+set ::argv [lassign $::argv argumentToReadOff]
+.CE
+.SH "SEE ALSO"
+lindex(n), list(n), lset(n), set(n)
+
+.SH KEYWORDS
+assign, element, list, multiple, set, variable