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case(n)                                     Tcl Built-In Commands                                    case(n)



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NAME
       case - Evaluate one of several scripts, depending on a given value

SYNOPSIS
       case string ?in? patList body ?patList body ...?

       case string ?in? {patList body ?patList body ...?}
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DESCRIPTION
       Note:  the  case command is obsolete and is supported only for backward compatibility.  At some point
       in the future it may be removed entirely.  You should use the switch command instead.

       The case command matches string against each of the patList arguments in order.  Each  patList  argu-ment argument
       ment  is a list of one or more patterns.  If any of these patterns matches string then case evaluates
       the following body argument by passing it recursively to the Tcl interpreter and returns  the  result
       of  that  evaluation.   Each patList argument consists of a single pattern or list of patterns.  Each
       pattern may contain any of the wild-cards described under string match.  If  a  patList  argument  is
       default,  the corresponding body will be evaluated if no patList matches string.  If no patList argu-ment argument
       ment matches string and no default is given, then the case command returns an empty string.

       Two syntaxes are provided for the patList and body arguments.  The first uses a separate argument for
       each  of  the  patterns and commands; this form is convenient if substitutions are desired on some of
       the patterns or commands.  The second form places all of the patterns and commands  together  into  a
       single  argument;  the  argument must have proper list structure, with the elements of the list being
       the patterns and commands.  The second form makes it easy  to  construct  multi-line  case  commands,
       since  the braces around the whole list make it unnecessary to include a backslash at the end of each
       line.  Since the patList arguments are in braces in the second form, no command or variable substitu-tions substitutions
       tions  are  performed  on  them;  this makes the behavior of the second form different than the first
       form in some cases.


SEE ALSO
       switch(n)


KEYWORDS
       case, match, regular expression



Tcl                                                  7.0                                             case(n)