Provided by: tcllib_1.17-dfsg-1_all 
NAME
textutil - Procedures to manipulate texts and strings.
SYNOPSIS
package require Tcl 8.2
package require textutil ?0.8?
::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...?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
DESCRIPTION
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.
BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK
This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain bugs and other
problems. Please report such in the category textutil of the Tcllib Trackers
[http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist]. Please also report any ideas for enhancements you
may have for either package and/or documentation.
SEE ALSO
regexp(3tcl), split(3tcl), string(3tcl)
KEYWORDS
TeX, formatting, hyphenation, indenting, paragraph, regular expression, string, trimming
CATEGORY
Text processing