textutil -
Procedures to manipulate texts and strings.
package require Tcl 8.2
package require textutil ? 0.7.1 ?
::textutil::adjust string args
::textutil::adjust::readPatterns filename
::textutil::adjust::listPredefined
::textutil::adjust::getPredefined filename
::textutil::indent string prefix ? skip ?
::textutil::undent string
::textutil::splitn string ? len ?
::textutil::splitx string ? regexp ?
::textutil::tabify string ? num ?
::textutil::tabify2 string ? num ?
::textutil::trim string ? regexp ?
::textutil::trimleft string ? regexp ?
::textutil::trimright string ? regexp ?
::textutil::trimPrefix string prefix
::textutil::trimEmptyHeading string
::textutil::untabify string ? num ?
::textutil::untabify2 string ? num ?
::textutil::strRepeat text num
::textutil::blank num
::textutil::chop string
::textutil::tail string
::textutil::cap string
::textutil::uncap string
::textutil::longestCommonPrefixList list
::textutil::longestCommonPrefix ? string... ?
The package
textutil provides commands that manipulate
strings or texts (a.k.a. long strings or string with embedded newlines
or paragraphs).
It is actually a bundle providing the commands of the six packages
- textutil::adjust
-
- textutil::repeat
-
- textutil::split
-
- textutil::string
-
- textutil::tabify
-
- textutil::trim
-
in the namespace
textutil.
The bundle is deprecated, and it will be removed in a future
release of Tcllib, after the next release. It is recommended to use the
relevant sub packages instead for whatever functionality is needed by
the using package or application.
The complete set of procedures is described below.
-
::textutil::adjust string args
-
Do a justification on the string according to args. The
string is taken as one big paragraph, ignoring any newlines. Then the
line is formatted according to the options used, and the command
return a new string with enough lines to contain all the printable
chars in the input string. A line is a set of chars between the
beginning of the string and a newline, or between 2 newlines, or
between a newline and the end of the string. If the input string is
small enough, the returned string won't contain any newlines.
Together with ::textutil::indent it is possible to create
properly wrapped paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.
By default, any occurrence of spaces characters or tabulation are
replaced by a single space so each word in a line is separated from
the next one by exactly one space char, and this forms a real
line. Each real line is placed in a logical line, which
have exactly a given length (see -length option below). The
real line may have a lesser length. Again by default, any
trailing spaces are ignored before returning the string (see
-full option below). The following options may be used after the
string parameter, and change the way the command place a
real line in a logical line.
- -full boolean
-
If set to false, any trailing space chars are deleted before
returning the string. If set to true, any trailing space
chars are left in the string. Default to false.
-
-hyphenate boolean
-
if set to false, no hyphenation will be done. If set to
true, the last word of a line is tried to be hyphenated.
Defaults to false. Note: hyphenation patterns must be loaded
prior, using the command ::textutil::adjust::readPatterns.
-
-justify center|left|plain|right
-
Set the justification of the returned string to center,
left, plain or right. By default, it is set to
left. The justification means that any line in the returned
string but the last one is build according to the value. If the
justification is set to plain and the number of printable
chars in the last line is less than 90% of the length of a line (see
-length), then this line is justified with the left
value, avoiding the expansion of this line when it is too small. The
meaning of each value is:
- center
-
The real line is centered in the logical line. If needed, a set of
space characters are added at the beginning (half of the needed set)
and at the end (half of the needed set) of the line if required (see
the option -full).
- left
-
The real line is set on the left of the logical line. It means that
there are no space chars at the beginning of this line. If required,
all needed space chars are added at the end of the line (see the
option -full).
- plain
-
The real line is exactly set in the logical line. It means that there
are no leading or trailing space chars. All the needed space chars are
added in the real line, between 2 (or more) words.
- right
-
The real line is set on the right of the logical line. It means that
there are no space chars at the end of this line, and there may be
some space chars at the beginning, despite of the -full option.
-
-length integer
-
Set the length of the logical line in the string to
integer. integer must be a positive integer
value. Defaults to 72.
-
-strictlength boolean
-
If set to false, a line can exceed the specified
-length if a single word is longer than -length. If
set to true, words that are longer than -length are
split so that no line exceeds the specified -length. Defaults
to false.
-
::textutil::adjust::readPatterns filename
-
Loads the internal storage for hyphenation patterns with the contents
of the file filename. This has to be done prior to calling
command ::textutil::adjust with
"-hyphenate true", or the hyphenation process will
not work correctly.
The package comes with a number of predefined pattern files, and the
command ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined can be used to find
out their names.
-
::textutil::adjust::listPredefined
-
This command returns a list containing the names of the hyphenation
files coming with this package.
-
::textutil::adjust::getPredefined filename
-
Use this command to query the package for the full path name of the
hyphenation file filename coming with the package. Only the
filenames found in the list returned by
::textutil::adjust::listPredefined are legal arguments for this
command.
-
::textutil::indent string prefix ? skip ?
-
Each line in the string indented by adding the string
prefix at its beginning. The modified string is returned
as the result of the command.
If skip is specified the first skip lines are left
untouched. The default for skip is 0, causing the
modification of all lines. Negative values for skip are treated
like 0. In other words, skip > 0 creates a
hanging indentation.
Together with ::textutil::adjust it is possible to create
properly wrapped paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.
-
::textutil::undent string
-
The command computes the common prefix for all
lines in string consisting solely out of whitespace,
removes this from each line and returns the modified string.
Lines containing only whitespace are always reduced to completely
empty lines. They and empty lines are also ignored when computing the
prefix to remove.
Together with ::textutil::adjust it is possible to create
properly wrapped paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.
-
::textutil::splitn string ? len ?
-
This command splits the given string into chunks of len
characters and returns a list containing these chunks. The argument
len defaults to 1 if none is specified. A negative
length is not allowed and will cause the command to throw an
error. Providing an empty string as input is allowed, the command will
then return an empty list. If the length of the string is not an
entire multiple of the chunk length, then the last chunk in the
generated list will be shorter than len.
-
::textutil::splitx string ? regexp ?
-
Split the string and return a list. The string is split
according to the regular expression regexp instead of a simple
list of chars. Note that if you add parenthesis into the regexp,
the parentheses part of separator would be added into list as
additional element. If the string is empty the result is the
empty list, like for split. If regexp is empty the
string is split at every character, like split does.
The regular expression regexp defaults to "[\\t \\r\\n]+".
-
::textutil::tabify string ? num ?
-
Tabify the string by replacing any substring of num space
chars by a tabulation and return the result as a new string. num
defaults to 8.
-
::textutil::tabify2 string ? num ?
-
Similar to ::textutil::tabify this command tabifies the
string and returns the result as a new string. A different
algorithm is used however. Instead of replacing any substring of
num spaces this command works more like an editor. num
defaults to 8.
Each line of the text in string is treated as if there are
tabstops every num columns. Only sequences of space characters
containing more than one space character and found immediately before
a tabstop are replaced with tabs.
-
::textutil::trim string ? regexp ?
-
Remove in string any leading and trailing substring according to
the regular expression regexp and return the result as a new
string. This apply on any line in the string, that is any
substring between 2 newline chars, or between the beginning of the
string and a newline, or between a newline and the end of the string,
or, if the string contain no newline, between the beginning and the
end of the string.
The regular expression regexp defaults to "[ \\t]+".
-
::textutil::trimleft string ? regexp ?
-
Remove in string any leading substring according to the regular
expression regexp and return the result as a new string. This
apply on any line in the string, that is any substring between
2 newline chars, or between the beginning of the string and a newline,
or between a newline and the end of the string, or, if the string
contain no newline, between the beginning and the end of the string.
The regular expression regexp defaults to "[ \\t]+".
-
::textutil::trimright string ? regexp ?
-
Remove in string any trailing substring according to the regular
expression regexp and return the result as a new string. This
apply on any line in the string, that is any substring between
2 newline chars, or between the beginning of the string and a newline,
or between a newline and the end of the string, or, if the string
contain no newline, between the beginning and the end of the string.
The regular expression regexp defaults to "[ \\t]+".
-
::textutil::trimPrefix string prefix
-
Removes the prefix from the beginning of string and
returns the result. The string is left unchanged if it doesn't
have prefix at its beginning.
-
::textutil::trimEmptyHeading string
-
Looks for empty lines (including lines consisting of only whitespace)
at the beginning of the string and removes it. The modified
string is returned as the result of the command.
-
::textutil::untabify string ? num ?
-
Untabify the string by replacing any tabulation char by a
substring of num space chars and return the result as a new
string. num defaults to 8.
-
::textutil::untabify2 string ? num ?
-
Untabify the string by replacing any tabulation char by a
substring of at most num space chars and return the result as a
new string. Unlike textutil::untabify each tab is not replaced
by a fixed number of space characters. The command overlays each line
in the string with tabstops every num columns instead and
replaces tabs with just enough space characters to reach the next
tabstop. This is the complement of the actions taken by
::textutil::tabify2. num defaults to 8.
There is one asymmetry though: A tab can be replaced with a single
space, but not the other way around.
-
::textutil::strRepeat text num
-
The implementation depends on the core executing the package. Used
string repeat if it is present, or a fast tcl implementation
if it is not. Returns a string containing the text repeated
num times. The repetitions are joined without characters between
them. A value of num <= 0 causes the command to return an empty
string.
-
::textutil::blank num
-
A convenience command. Returns a string of num spaces.
-
::textutil::chop string
-
A convenience command. Removes the last character of string and
returns the shortened string.
-
::textutil::tail string
-
A convenience command. Removes the first character of string and
returns the shortened string.
-
::textutil::cap string
-
Capitalizes the first character of string and returns the modified string.
-
::textutil::uncap string
-
The complementary operation to ::textutil::cap. Forces the first
character of string to lower case and returns the modified
string.
-
::textutil::longestCommonPrefixList list
-
-
::textutil::longestCommonPrefix ? string... ?
-
Computes the longest common prefix for either the strings given
to the command, or the strings specified in the single list, and
returns it as the result of the command.
If no strings were specified the result is the empty string. If only
one string was specified, the string itself is returned, as it is its
own longest common prefix.
This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain
bugs and other problems.
Please report such in the category
textutil of the
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883.
Please also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either
package and/or documentation.
regexp(n), split(n), string(n)
string, regular expression, formatting, TeX, hyphenation, indenting, trimming, paragraph