Provided by: tcl8.5-doc_8.5.19-4_all 
NAME
dict - Manipulate dictionaries
SYNOPSIS
dict option arg ?arg ...?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
DESCRIPTION
Performs one of several operations on dictionary values or variables containing dictionary
values (see the DICTIONARY VALUES section below for a description), depending on option.
The legal options (which may be abbreviated) are:
dict append dictionaryVariable key ?string ...?
This appends the given string (or strings) to the value that the given key maps to
in the dictionary value contained in the given variable, writing the resulting
dictionary value back to that variable. Non-existent keys are treated as if they
map to an empty string.
dict create ?key value ...?
Create a new dictionary that contains each of the key/value mappings listed as
arguments (keys and values alternating, with each key being followed by its
associated value.)
dict exists dictionaryValue key ?key ...?
This returns a boolean value indicating whether the given key (or path of keys
through a set of nested dictionaries) exists in the given dictionary value. This
returns a true value exactly when dict get on that path will succeed.
dict filter dictionaryValue filterType arg ?arg ...?
This takes a dictionary value and returns a new dictionary that contains just those
key/value pairs that match the specified filter type (which may be abbreviated.)
Supported filter types are:
dict filter dictionaryValue key globPattern
The key rule only matches those key/value pairs whose keys match the given
pattern (in the style of string match.)
dict filter dictionaryValue script {keyVar valueVar} script
The script rule tests for matching by assigning the key to the keyVar and
the value to the valueVar, and then evaluating the given script which should
return a boolean value (with the key/value pair only being included in the
result of the dict filter when a true value is returned.) Note that the
first argument after the rule selection word is a two-element list. If the
script returns with a condition of TCL_BREAK, no further key/value pairs are
considered for inclusion in the resulting dictionary, and a condition of
TCL_CONTINUE is equivalent to a false result. The key/value pairs are tested
in the order in which the keys were inserted into the dictionary.
dict filter dictionaryValue value globPattern
The value rule only matches those key/value pairs whose values match the
given pattern (in the style of string match.)
dict for {keyVar valueVar} dictionaryValue body
This command takes three arguments, the first a two-element list of variable names
(for the key and value respectively of each mapping in the dictionary), the second
the dictionary value to iterate across, and the third a script to be evaluated for
each mapping with the key and value variables set appropriately (in the manner of
foreach.) The result of the command is an empty string. If any evaluation of the
body generates a TCL_BREAK result, no further pairs from the dictionary will be
iterated over and the dict for command will terminate successfully immediately. If
any evaluation of the body generates a TCL_CONTINUE result, this shall be treated
exactly like a normal TCL_OK result. The order of iteration is the order in which
the keys were inserted into the dictionary.
dict get dictionaryValue ?key ...?
Given a dictionary value (first argument) and a key (second argument), this will
retrieve the value for that key. Where several keys are supplied, the behaviour of
the command shall be as if the result of dict get $dictVal $key was passed as the
first argument to dict get with the remaining arguments as second (and possibly
subsequent) arguments. This facilitates lookups in nested dictionaries. For
example, the following two commands are equivalent:
dict get $dict foo bar spong
dict get [dict get [dict get $dict foo] bar] spong
If no keys are provided, dict get will return a list containing pairs of elements
in a manner similar to array get. That is, the first element of each pair would be
the key and the second element would be the value for that key.
It is an error to attempt to retrieve a value for a key that is not present in the
dictionary.
dict incr dictionaryVariable key ?increment?
This adds the given increment value (an integer that defaults to 1 if not
specified) to the value that the given key maps to in the dictionary value
contained in the given variable, writing the resulting dictionary value back to
that variable. Non-existent keys are treated as if they map to 0. It is an error to
increment a value for an existing key if that value is not an integer.
dict info dictionaryValue
This returns information (intended for display to people) about the given
dictionary though the format of this data is dependent on the implementation of the
dictionary. For dictionaries that are implemented by hash tables, it is expected
that this will return the string produced by Tcl_HashStats, similar to array
statistics.
dict keys dictionaryValue ?globPattern?
Return a list of all keys in the given dictionary value. If a pattern is supplied,
only those keys that match it (according to the rules of string match) will be
returned. The returned keys will be in the order that they were inserted into the
dictionary.
dict lappend dictionaryVariable key ?value ...?
This appends the given items to the list value that the given key maps to in the
dictionary value contained in the given variable, writing the resulting dictionary
value back to that variable. Non-existent keys are treated as if they map to an
empty list, and it is legal for there to be no items to append to the list. It is
an error for the value that the key maps to to not be representable as a list.
dict merge ?dictionaryValue ...?
Return a dictionary that contains the contents of each of the dictionaryValue
arguments. Where two (or more) dictionaries contain a mapping for the same key,
the resulting dictionary maps that key to the value according to the last
dictionary on the command line containing a mapping for that key.
dict remove dictionaryValue ?key ...?
Return a new dictionary that is a copy of an old one passed in as first argument
except without mappings for each of the keys listed. It is legal for there to be
no keys to remove, and it also legal for any of the keys to be removed to not be
present in the input dictionary in the first place.
dict replace dictionaryValue ?key value ...?
Return a new dictionary that is a copy of an old one passed in as first argument
except with some values different or some extra key/value pairs added. It is legal
for this command to be called with no key/value pairs, but illegal for this command
to be called with a key but no value.
dict set dictionaryVariable key ?key ...? value
This operation takes the name of a variable containing a dictionary value and
places an updated dictionary value in that variable containing a mapping from the
given key to the given value. When multiple keys are present, this operation
creates or updates a chain of nested dictionaries.
dict size dictionaryValue
Return the number of key/value mappings in the given dictionary value.
dict unset dictionaryVariable key ?key ...?
This operation (the companion to dict set) takes the name of a variable containing
a dictionary value and places an updated dictionary value in that variable that
does not contain a mapping for the given key. Where multiple keys are present, this
describes a path through nested dictionaries to the mapping to remove. At least one
key must be specified, but the last key on the key-path need not exist. All other
components on the path must exist.
dict update dictionaryVariable key varName ?key varName ...? body
Execute the Tcl script in body with the value for each key (as found by reading the
dictionary value in dictionaryVariable) mapped to the variable varName. There may
be multiple key/varName pairs. If a key does not have a mapping, that corresponds
to an unset varName. When body terminates, any changes made to the varNames is
reflected back to the dictionary within dictionaryVariable (unless
dictionaryVariable itself becomes unreadable, when all updates are silently
discarded), even if the result of body is an error or some other kind of
exceptional exit. The result of dict update is (unless some kind of error occurs)
the result of the evaluation of body.
Each varName is mapped in the scope enclosing the dict update; it is recommended
that this command only be used in a local scope (procedure or lambda term for
apply). Because of this, the variables set by dict update will continue to exist
after the command finishes (unless explicitly unset). Note that the mapping of
values to variables does not use traces; changes to the dictionaryVariable's
contents only happen when body terminates.
dict values dictionaryValue ?globPattern?
Return a list of all values in the given dictionary value. If a pattern is
supplied, only those values that match it (according to the rules of string match)
will be returned. The returned values will be in the order of that the keys
associated with those values were inserted into the dictionary.
dict with dictionaryVariable ?key ...? body
Execute the Tcl script in body with the value for each key in dictionaryVariable
mapped (in a manner similarly to dict update) to a variable with the same name.
Where one or more keys are available, these indicate a chain of nested
dictionaries, with the innermost dictionary being the one opened out for the
execution of body. As with dict update, making dictionaryVariable unreadable will
make the updates to the dictionary be discarded, and this also happens if the
contents of dictionaryVariable are adjusted so that the chain of dictionaries no
longer exists. The result of dict with is (unless some kind of error occurs) the
result of the evaluation of body.
The variables are mapped in the scope enclosing the dict with; it is recommended
that this command only be used in a local scope (procedure or lambda term for
apply). Because of this, the variables set by dict with will continue to exist
after the command finishes (unless explicitly unset). Note that the mapping of
values to variables does not use traces; changes to the dictionaryVariable's
contents only happen when body terminates.
If the dictionaryVariable contains a value that is not a dictionary at the point
when the body terminates (which can easily happen if the name is the same as any of
the keys in dictionary) then an error occurs at that point. This command is thus
not recommended for use when the keys in the dictionary are expected to clash with
the dictionaryVariable name itself. Where the contained key does map to a
dictionary, the net effect is to combine that inner dictionary into the outer
dictionary; see the EXAMPLES below for an illustration of this.
DICTIONARY VALUES
Dictionaries are values that contain an efficient, order-preserving mapping from arbitrary
keys to arbitrary values. Each key in the dictionary maps to a single value. They have a
textual format that is exactly that of any list with an even number of elements, with each
mapping in the dictionary being represented as two items in the list. When a command takes
a dictionary and produces a new dictionary based on it (either returning it or writing it
back into the variable that the starting dictionary was read from) the new dictionary will
have the same order of keys, modulo any deleted keys and with new keys added on to the
end. When a string is interpreted as a dictionary and it would otherwise have duplicate
keys, only the last value for a particular key is used; the others are ignored, meaning
that, “apple banana” and “apple carrot apple banana” are equivalent dictionaries (with
different string representations).
Operations that derive a new dictionary from an old one (e.g., updates like dict set and
dict unset) preserve the order of keys in the dictionary. The exceptions to this are for
any new keys they add, which are appended to the sequence, and any keys that are removed,
which are excised from the order.
EXAMPLES
Basic dictionary usage:
# Make a dictionary to map extensions to descriptions
set filetypes [dict create .txt "Text File" .tcl "Tcl File"]
# Add/update the dictionary
dict set filetypes .tcl "Tcl Script"
dict set filetypes .tm "Tcl Module"
dict set filetypes .gif "GIF Image"
dict set filetypes .png "PNG Image"
# Simple read from the dictionary
set ext ".tcl"
set desc [dict get $filetypes $ext]
puts "$ext is for a $desc"
# Somewhat more complex, with existence test
foreach filename [glob *] {
set ext [file extension $filename]
if {[dict exists $filetypes $ext]} {
puts "$filename is a [dict get $filetypes $ext]"
}
}
Constructing and using nested dictionaries:
# Data for one employee
dict set employeeInfo 12345-A forenames "Joe"
dict set employeeInfo 12345-A surname "Schmoe"
dict set employeeInfo 12345-A street "147 Short Street"
dict set employeeInfo 12345-A city "Springfield"
dict set employeeInfo 12345-A phone "555-1234"
# Data for another employee
dict set employeeInfo 98372-J forenames "Anne"
dict set employeeInfo 98372-J surname "Other"
dict set employeeInfo 98372-J street "32995 Oakdale Way"
dict set employeeInfo 98372-J city "Springfield"
dict set employeeInfo 98372-J phone "555-8765"
# The above data probably ought to come from a database...
# Print out some employee info
set i 0
puts "There are [dict size $employeeInfo] employees"
dict for {id info} $employeeInfo {
puts "Employee #[incr i]: $id"
dict with info {
puts " Name: $forenames $surname"
puts " Address: $street, $city"
puts " Telephone: $phone"
}
}
# Another way to iterate and pick out names...
foreach id [dict keys $employeeInfo] {
puts "Hello, [dict get $employeeInfo $id forenames]!"
}
A localizable version of string toupper:
# Set up the basic C locale
set capital [dict create C [dict create]]
foreach c [split {abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz} ""] {
dict set capital C $c [string toupper $c]
}
# English locales can luckily share the "C" locale
dict set capital en [dict get $capital C]
dict set capital en_US [dict get $capital C]
dict set capital en_GB [dict get $capital C]
# ... and so on for other supported languages ...
# Now get the mapping for the current locale and use it.
set upperCaseMap [dict get $capital $env(LANG)]
set upperCase [string map $upperCaseMap $string]
Showing the detail of dict with:
proc sumDictionary {varName} {
upvar 1 $varName vbl
foreach key [dict keys $vbl] {
# Manufacture an entry in the subdictionary
dict set vbl $key total 0
# Add the values and remove the old
dict with vbl $key {
set total [expr {$x + $y + $z}]
unset x y z
}
}
puts "last total was $total, for key $key"
}
set myDict {
a {x 1 y 2 z 3}
b {x 6 y 5 z 4}
}
sumDictionary myDict
# prints: last total was 15, for key b
puts "dictionary is now \"$myDict\""
# prints: dictionary is now "a {total 6} b {total 15}"
When dict with is used with a key that clashes with the name of the dictionary variable:
set foo {foo {a b} bar 2 baz 3}
dict with foo {}
puts $foo
# prints: a b foo {a b} bar 2 baz 3
SEE ALSO
append(3tcl), array(3tcl), foreach(3tcl), incr(3tcl), list(3tcl), lappend(3tcl), set(3tcl)
KEYWORDS
dictionary, create, update, lookup, iterate, filter