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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. The updated dictionary value is returned.

       dict create ?key value ...?
              Return 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 any of  the │
                     given patterns (in the style of string match.)

              dict filter dictionaryValue script {keyVariable valueVariable} script
                     The  script  rule tests for matching by assigning the key to the keyVariable
                     and the value to the valueVariable, and then  evaluating  the  given  script
                     which  should  result in 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 any  of │
                     the given patterns (in the style of string match.)

       dict for {keyVariable valueVariable} 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. The  updated
              dictionary value is returned.

       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.  The
              updated dictionary value is returned.

       dict map {keyVariable valueVariable} dictionaryValue body
              This  command applies a transformation to each element of a dictionary, returning a
              new dictionary. It takes three arguments:  the  first  is  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 lmap). In an iteration where the  evaluated  script
              completes  normally (TCL_OK, as opposed to an error, etc.) the result of the script
              is put into an accumulator dictionary using the key that is the current contents of
              the  keyVariable  variable at that point. The result of the dict map command is the
              accumulator dictionary after all keys have been iterated over.

              If the evaluation of the body for any particular step generates a break, no further
              pairs  from  the  dictionary  will  be  iterated over and the dict map command will
              terminate successfully immediately. If the evaluation of the body for a  particular
              step  generates  a  continue  result,  the  current  iteration  is  aborted and the
              accumulator dictionary is not modified. The order of iteration is the natural order
              of  the  dictionary  (typically  the  order  in  which  the  keys were added to the
              dictionary; the order is the same as that used in dict for).

       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. The updated dictionary value  is
              returned.

       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. The updated dictionary value is returned.

       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, lambda term for apply,
              or method). 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, lambda term for apply,
              or method). 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),
       lmap(3tcl), set(3tcl)

KEYWORDS

       dictionary, create, update, lookup, iterate, filter, map