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       Note:  the  case  command is obsolete and is supported only for backward compatibility.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

Tcl                                                    7.0                                            case(3tcl)