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       Note:  the  case command is obsolete and is supported only for backward compatibility.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 argument 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 argument 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 substitutions
       are performed on them;  this makes the behavior of the  second  form  different  than  the
       first form in some cases.

SEE ALSO

       switch(3tcl)

KEYWORDS

       case, match, regular expression