'\"
'\" Copyright (c) 1997 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
'\"
'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
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'\" SCCS: @(#) @(#) GetIndex.3 1.3 97/07/30 16:21:05
'\" 
.so man.macros
.TH Tcl_GetIndexFromObj 3 8.0 Tcl "Tcl Library Procedures"
.BS
.SH NAME
Tcl_GetIndexFromObj \- lookup string in table of keywords
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
\fB#include <tcl.h>\fR
.sp
int
\fBTcl_GetIndexFromObj\fR(\fIinterp, objPtr, tablePtr, msg, flags, indexPtr\fR)
.SH ARGUMENTS
.AS Tcl_Interp **tablePtr
.AP Tcl_Interp *interp in
Interpreter to use for error reporting; if NULL, then no message is
provided on errors.
.AP Tcl_Obj *objPtr in/out
The string value of this object is used to search through \fItablePtr\fR.
The internal representation is modified to hold the index of the matching
table entry.
.AP char **tablePtr in
An array of null-terminated strings.  The end of the array is marked
by a NULL string pointer.
.AP char *msg in
Null-terminated string describing what is being looked up, such as
\fBoption\fR.  This string is included in error messages.
.AP int flags in
OR-ed combination of bits providing additional information for
operation.  The only bit that is currently defined is \fBTCL_EXACT\fR.
.AP int *indexPtr out
The index of the string in \fItablePtr\fR that matches the value of
\fIobjPtr\fR is returned here.
.BE

.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
This procedure provides an efficient way for looking up keywords,
switch names, option names, and similar things where the value of
an object must be one of a predefined set of values.
\fIObjPtr\fR is compared against each of
the strings in \fItablePtr\fR to find a match.  A match occurs if
\fIobjPtr\fR's string value is identical to one of the strings in
\fItablePtr\fR, or if it is a unique abbreviation
for exactly one of the strings in \fItablePtr\fR and the
\fBTCL_EXACT\fR flag was not specified; in either case
the index of the matching entry is stored at \fI*indexPtr\fR
and TCL_OK is returned.
.PP
If there is no matching entry,
TCL_ERROR is returned and an error message is left in \fIinterp\fR's
result if \fIinterp\fR isn't NULL.  \fIMsg\fR is included in the
error message to indicate what was being looked up.  For example,
if \fImsg\fR is \fBoption\fR the error message will have a form like
\fBbad option "firt": must be first, second, or third\fR.
.PP
If \fBTcl_GetIndexFromObj\fR completes successfully it modifies the
internal representation of \fIobjPtr\fR to hold the address of
the table and the index of the matching entry.  If \fBTcl_GetIndexFromObj\fR
is invoked again with the same \fIobjPtr\fR and \fItablePtr\fR
arguments (e.g. during a reinvocation of a Tcl command), it returns
the matching index immediately without having to redo the lookup
operation.  Note: \fBTcl_GetIndexFromObj\fR assumes that the entries
in \fItablePtr\fR are static: they must not change between invocations.

.SH "SEE ALSO"
Tcl_WrongNumArgs

.SH KEYWORDS
index, object, table lookup