path: root/doc/lsearch.n

'\"
'\" Copyright (c) 1993 The Regents of the University of California.
'\" Copyright (c) 1994-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
'\" Copyright (c) 2001 Kevin B. Kenny.  All rights reserved.
'\"
'\" 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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'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: lsearch.n,v 1.10 2002/03/06 11:28:08 dkf Exp $
'\" 
.so man.macros
.TH lsearch n 8.4 Tcl "Tcl Built-In Commands"
.BS
'\" Note:  do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below!
.SH NAME
lsearch \- See if a list contains a particular element
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBlsearch \fR?\fIoptions\fR? \fIlist pattern\fR
.BE

.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
This command searches the elements of \fIlist\fR to see if one
of them matches \fIpattern\fR.  If so, the command returns the index
of the first matching element
.VS 8.4
(unless the options \fB\-all\fR or \fB\-inline\fR are specified.)
.VE 8.4
If not, the command returns \fB\-1\fR.  The \fIoption\fR arguments
indicates how the elements of the list are to be matched against
\fIpattern\fR and it must have one of the following values:
.TP
\fB\-all\fR
.VS 8.4
Changes the result to be the list of all matching indices (or all
matching values if \fB\-inline\fR is specified as well.)
.VE 8.4
.TP
\fB\-ascii\fR
The list elements are to be examined as ASCII strings.  This option is only
meaningful when used with \fB\-exact\fR or \fB\-sorted\fR.
.TP
\fB\-decreasing\fR
The list elements are sorted in decreasing order.  This option is only
meaningful when used with \fB\-sorted\fR.
.TP
\fB\-dictionary\fR
The list elements are to be compared using dictionary-style
comparisons.  This option is only meaningful when used with
\fB\-exact\fR or \fB\-sorted\fR.
.TP
\fB\-exact\fR
The list element must contain exactly the same string as \fIpattern\fR.
.TP
\fB\-glob\fR
\fIPattern\fR is a glob-style pattern which is matched against each list
element using the same rules as the \fBstring match\fR command.
.TP
\fB\-increasing\fR
The list elements are sorted in increasing order.  This option is only
meaningful when used with \fB\-sorted\fR.
.TP
\fB\-inline\fR
.VS 8.4
The matching value is returned instead of its index (or an empty
string if no value matches.)  If \fB\-all\fR is also specified, then
the result of the command is the list of all values that matched.
.VE 8.4
.TP
\fB\-integer\fR
The list elements are to be compared as integers.  This option is only
meaningful when used with \fB\-exact\fR or \fB\-sorted\fR.
.TP
\fB\-not\fR
.VS 8.4
This negates the sense of the match, returning the index of the first
non-matching value in the list.
.VE 8.4
.TP
\fB\-real\fR
The list elements are to be compared as floating-point values.  This
option is only meaningful when used with \fB\-exact\fR or \fB\-sorted\fR.
.TP
\fB\-regexp\fR
\fIPattern\fR is treated as a regular expression and matched against
each list element using the rules described in the \fBre_syntax\fR
reference page.
.TP
\fB\-sorted\fR
The list elements are in sorted order.  If this option is specified,
\fBlsearch\fR will use a more efficient searching algorithm to search
\fIlist\fR.  If no other options are specified, \fIlist\fR is assumed
to be sorted in increasing order, and to contain ASCII strings.  This
option cannot be used with \fB\-all\fR, \fB\-glob\fR, \fB\-not\fR or
\fB\-regexp\fR.
.TP
\fB\-start\fR \fIindex\fR
.VS 8.4
The list is searched starting at position \fIindex\fR.  If \fIindex\fR
has the value \fBend\fR, it refers to the last element in the list,
and \fBend\-\fIinteger\fR refers to the last element in the list minus
the specified integer offset.
.VE 8.4
.PP
If \fIoption\fR is omitted then it defaults to \fB\-glob\fR.  If more
than one of \fB\-exact\fR, \fB\-glob\fR, \fB\-regexp\fR, and
\fB\-sorted\fR is specified, whichever option is specified last takes
precendence.  If more than one of \fB\-ascii\fR, \fB\-dictionary\fR,
\fB\-integer\fR and \fB\-real\fR is specified, the option specified
last takes precendence.  If more than one of \fB\-increasing\fR and
\fB\-decreasing\fR is specified, the option specified last takes
precedence.

.SH EXAMPLES
.VS 8.4
.CS
lsearch {a b c d e} c => 2
lsearch -all {a b c a b c} c => 2 5
lsearch -data {a20 b35 c47} b* => b35
lsearch -data -not {a20 b35 c47} b* => a20
lsearch -all -data -not {a20 b35 c47} b* => a20 c47
lsearch -all -not {a20 b35 c47} b* => 0 2
lsearch -start 3 {a b c a b c} c => 5
.CE
.VE 8.4

.SH "SEE ALSO"
.VS 8.4
foreach(n), list(n), lappend(n), lindex(n), linsert(n), llength(n), 
lset(n), lsort(n), lrange(n), lreplace(n)
.VE

.SH KEYWORDS
list, match, pattern, regular expression, search, string