Provided by: tcl8.6-doc_8.6.12+dfsg-1build1_all bug

NAME

       Tcl_InitHashTable,   Tcl_InitCustomHashTable,  Tcl_InitObjHashTable,  Tcl_DeleteHashTable,
       Tcl_CreateHashEntry,     Tcl_DeleteHashEntry,     Tcl_FindHashEntry,     Tcl_GetHashValue,
       Tcl_SetHashValue,  Tcl_GetHashKey,  Tcl_FirstHashEntry, Tcl_NextHashEntry, Tcl_HashStats -
       procedures to manage hash tables

SYNOPSIS

       #include <tcl.h>

       Tcl_InitHashTable(tablePtr, keyType)

       Tcl_InitCustomHashTable(tablePtr, keyType, typePtr)

       Tcl_InitObjHashTable(tablePtr)

       Tcl_DeleteHashTable(tablePtr)

       Tcl_HashEntry *
       Tcl_CreateHashEntry(tablePtr, key, newPtr)

       Tcl_DeleteHashEntry(entryPtr)

       Tcl_HashEntry *
       Tcl_FindHashEntry(tablePtr, key)

       ClientData
       Tcl_GetHashValue(entryPtr)

       Tcl_SetHashValue(entryPtr, value)

       void *
       Tcl_GetHashKey(tablePtr, entryPtr)

       Tcl_HashEntry *
       Tcl_FirstHashEntry(tablePtr, searchPtr)

       Tcl_HashEntry *
       Tcl_NextHashEntry(searchPtr)

       char *
       Tcl_HashStats(tablePtr)

ARGUMENTS

       Tcl_HashTable *tablePtr (in)                   Address of hash table  structure  (for  all
                                                      procedures but Tcl_InitHashTable, this must
                                                      have been initialized by previous  call  to
                                                      Tcl_InitHashTable).

       int keyType (in)                               Kind  of  keys  to  use for new hash table.
                                                      Must     be     either     TCL_STRING_KEYS,
                                                      TCL_ONE_WORD_KEYS,    TCL_CUSTOM_TYPE_KEYS,
                                                      TCL_CUSTOM_PTR_KEYS, or  an  integer  value
                                                      greater than 1.

       Tcl_HashKeyType *typePtr (in)                  Address  of  structure  which  defines  the
                                                      behavior of the hash table.

       const void *key (in)                           Key to use for  probe  into  table.   Exact
                                                      form  depends  on  keyType  used  to create
                                                      table.

       int *newPtr (out)                              The word at *newPtr is set to 1  if  a  new
                                                      entry  was  created  and  0  if  there  was
                                                      already an entry for key.

       Tcl_HashEntry *entryPtr (in)                   Pointer to hash table entry.

       ClientData value (in)                          New value to assign to  hash  table  entry.
                                                      Need not have type ClientData, but must fit
                                                      in same space as ClientData.

       Tcl_HashSearch *searchPtr (in)                 Pointer to record to use to keep  track  of
                                                      progress  in enumerating all the entries in
                                                      a hash table.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION

       A hash table consists of zero or more entries, each consisting  of  a  key  and  a  value.
       Given  the  key  for an entry, the hashing routines can very quickly locate the entry, and
       hence its value. There may be at most one entry in a hash table with a particular key, but
       many  entries may have the same value.  Keys can take one of four forms: strings, one-word
       values, integer arrays, or custom keys defined by a Tcl_HashKeyType structure (See section
       THE TCL_HASHKEYTYPE STRUCTURE below). All of the keys in a given table have the same form,
       which is specified when the table is initialized.

       The value of a hash table entry can be anything that fits in the same space as a “char  *”
       pointer.   Values  for hash table entries are managed entirely by clients, not by the hash
       module itself.  Typically each entry's value is a pointer to a data structure  managed  by
       client code.

       Hash  tables  grow gracefully as the number of entries increases, so that there are always
       less than three entries per  hash  bucket,  on  average.  This  allows  for  fast  lookups
       regardless of the number of entries in a table.

       The   core   provides   three   functions   for   the   initialization   of  hash  tables,
       Tcl_InitHashTable, Tcl_InitObjHashTable and Tcl_InitCustomHashTable.

       Tcl_InitHashTable initializes a structure that describes a new hash table.  The space  for
       the  structure  is  provided  by the caller, not by the hash module.  The value of keyType
       indicates what kinds of keys will be used for all entries in the table.  All  of  the  key
       types  described  later  are  allowed,  with  the  exception  of  TCL_CUSTOM_TYPE_KEYS and
       TCL_CUSTOM_PTR_KEYS.

       Tcl_InitObjHashTable is a wrapper around Tcl_InitCustomHashTable and  initializes  a  hash
       table whose keys are Tcl_Obj *.

       Tcl_InitCustomHashTable initializes a structure that describes a new hash table. The space
       for the structure is provided by the caller, not by the hash module.  The value of keyType
       indicates what kinds of keys will be used for all entries in the table.  KeyType must have
       one of the following values:

       TCL_STRING_KEYS          Keys are null-terminated strings.  They  are  passed  to  hashing
                                routines using the address of the first character of the string.

       TCL_ONE_WORD_KEYS        Keys are single-word values;  they are passed to hashing routines
                                and stored in hash table entries as “char *” values.  The pointer
                                value  is  the  key;  it need not (and usually does not) actually
                                point to a string.

       TCL_CUSTOM_TYPE_KEYS     Keys are of arbitrary type, and are stored in the entry.  Hashing
                                and  comparison  is  determined  by  typePtr. The Tcl_HashKeyType
                                structure  is  described  in  the  section  THE   TCL_HASHKEYTYPE
                                STRUCTURE below.

       TCL_CUSTOM_PTR_KEYS      Keys  are  pointers  to  an arbitrary type, and are stored in the
                                entry. Hashing and  comparison  is  determined  by  typePtr.  The
                                Tcl_HashKeyType   structure  is  described  in  the  section  THE
                                TCL_HASHKEYTYPE STRUCTURE below.

       other                    If keyType is not one of the above, then it must  be  an  integer
                                value  greater  than  1.  In this case the keys will be arrays of
                                “int” values, where keyType gives the number of ints in each key.
                                This  allows  structures  to be used as keys.  All keys must have
                                the same size.  Array keys  are  passed  into  hashing  functions
                                using the address of the first int in the array.

       Tcl_DeleteHashTable  deletes  all  of  the entries in a hash table and frees up the memory
       associated with the table's bucket array and entries.  It does not free the  actual  table
       structure  (pointed  to  by  tablePtr),  since that memory is assumed to be managed by the
       client.  Tcl_DeleteHashTable also does not free or otherwise manipulate the values of  the
       hash table entries.  If the entry values point to dynamically-allocated memory, then it is
       the client's responsibility to free these structures before deleting the table.

       Tcl_CreateHashEntry locates the entry corresponding to a particular key,  creating  a  new
       entry  in  the table if there was not already one with the given key.  If an entry already
       existed with the given key then *newPtr is set to zero.  If a new entry was created,  then
       *newPtr  is  set  to  a non-zero value and the value of the new entry will be set to zero.
       The return value from Tcl_CreateHashEntry is a pointer to the entry, which may be used  to
       retrieve and modify the entry's value or to delete the entry from the table.

       Tcl_DeleteHashEntry  will  remove  an  existing entry from a table.  The memory associated
       with the entry itself will be freed,  but  the  client  is  responsible  for  any  cleanup
       associated with the entry's value, such as freeing a structure that it points to.

       Tcl_FindHashEntry  is  similar to Tcl_CreateHashEntry except that it does not create a new
       entry if the key doesn't exist; instead, it returns NULL as result.

       Tcl_GetHashValue and Tcl_SetHashValue are  used  to  read  and  write  an  entry's  value,
       respectively.  Values are stored and retrieved as type “ClientData”, which is large enough
       to hold a pointer value.  On almost all machines this is large enough to hold  an  integer
       value too.

       Tcl_GetHashKey  returns  the  key  for  a given hash table entry, either as a pointer to a
       string, a one-word (“char *”) key, or as a pointer to  the  first  word  of  an  array  of
       integers,  depending  on  the  keyType  used  to  create  a  hash  table.   In  all  cases
       Tcl_GetHashKey returns a result with type “char *”.  When the key is a  string  or  array,
       the  result  of Tcl_GetHashKey points to information in the table entry;  this information
       will remain valid until the entry is deleted or its table is deleted.

       Tcl_FirstHashEntry and Tcl_NextHashEntry may be used to scan all of the entries in a  hash
       table.   A  structure  of  type  “Tcl_HashSearch”, provided by the client, is used to keep
       track of progress through the table.  Tcl_FirstHashEntry initializes the search record and
       returns  the  first  entry  in the table (or NULL if the table is empty).  Each subsequent
       call to Tcl_NextHashEntry returns the next entry in the table or NULL if the  end  of  the
       table   has   been   reached.    A   call  to  Tcl_FirstHashEntry  followed  by  calls  to
       Tcl_NextHashEntry will return each of the  entries  in  the  table  exactly  once,  in  an
       arbitrary  order.   It  is  inadvisable  to  modify  the  structure of the table, e.g.  by
       creating or deleting entries, while the search is  in  progress,  with  the  exception  of
       deleting the entry returned by Tcl_FirstHashEntry or Tcl_NextHashEntry.

       Tcl_HashStats returns a dynamically-allocated string with overall information about a hash
       table, such as the number of entries it contains, the number of buckets in its hash array,
       and  the utilization of the buckets.  It is the caller's responsibility to free the result
       string by passing it to ckfree.

       The header file tcl.h defines the actual data structures used to  implement  hash  tables.
       This is necessary so that clients can allocate Tcl_HashTable structures and so that macros
       can be used to read and write the values  of  entries.   However,  users  of  the  hashing
       routines  should never refer directly to any of the fields of any of the hash-related data
       structures; use the procedures and macros defined here.

THE TCL_HASHKEYTYPE STRUCTURE

       Extension writers can define new hash key types by defining four procedures,  initializing
       a Tcl_HashKeyType structure to describe the type, and calling Tcl_InitCustomHashTable. The
       Tcl_HashKeyType structure is defined as follows:

              typedef struct Tcl_HashKeyType {
                  int version;
                  int flags;
                  Tcl_HashKeyProc *hashKeyProc;
                  Tcl_CompareHashKeysProc *compareKeysProc;
                  Tcl_AllocHashEntryProc *allocEntryProc;
                  Tcl_FreeHashEntryProc *freeEntryProc;
              } Tcl_HashKeyType;

       The version member is the version of the table. If this structure is  extended  in  future
       then the version can be used to distinguish between different structures. It should be set
       to TCL_HASH_KEY_TYPE_VERSION.

       The flags member is 0 or one or more of the following values OR'ed together:

       TCL_HASH_KEY_RANDOMIZE_HASH
                                There are some things, pointers for example  which  do  not  hash
                                well  because they do not use the lower bits. If this flag is set
                                then the hash table will attempt to rectify this  by  randomizing
                                the  bits  and  then using the upper N bits as the index into the
                                table.

       TCL_HASH_KEY_SYSTEM_HASH This flag forces Tcl to  use  the  memory  allocation  procedures
                                provided  by  the  operating  system  when allocating and freeing
                                memory used to store the hash table data structures, and not  any
                                of  Tcl's  own  customized  memory  allocation  routines. This is
                                important if the hash table is to be used in  the  implementation
                                of  a  custom  set  of  allocation  routines, or something that a
                                custom set of allocation routines might depend on,  in  order  to
                                avoid any circular dependency.

       The hashKeyProc member contains the address of a function called to calculate a hash value
       for the key.

              typedef unsigned int Tcl_HashKeyProc(
                      Tcl_HashTable *tablePtr,
                      void *keyPtr);

       If this is NULL then keyPtr is used and TCL_HASH_KEY_RANDOMIZE_HASH is assumed.

       The compareKeysProc member contains the address of a function called to compare two keys.

              typedef int Tcl_CompareHashKeysProc(
                      void *keyPtr,
                      Tcl_HashEntry *hPtr);

       If this is NULL then the keyPtr pointers are compared. If the keys do not match  then  the
       function returns 0, otherwise it returns 1.

       The  allocEntryProc member contains the address of a function called to allocate space for
       an entry and initialize the key and clientData.

              typedef Tcl_HashEntry *Tcl_AllocHashEntryProc(
                      Tcl_HashTable *tablePtr,
                      void *keyPtr);

       If this is NULL then Tcl_Alloc is used to allocate enough space for a  Tcl_HashEntry,  the
       key pointer is assigned to key.oneWordValue and the clientData is set to NULL. String keys
       and array keys use this function to allocate enough space for the entry and the key in one
       block,  rather than doing it in two blocks. This saves space for a pointer to the key from
       the entry and another memory allocation. Tcl_Obj*  keys  use  this  function  to  allocate
       enough space for an entry and increment the reference count on the value.

       The  freeEntryProc  member  contains the address of a function called to free space for an
       entry.

              typedef void Tcl_FreeHashEntryProc(
                      Tcl_HashEntry *hPtr);

       If this is NULL then Tcl_Free is used to free the space for the entry.  Tcl_Obj* keys  use
       this function to decrement the reference count on the value.

KEYWORDS

       hash table, key, lookup, search, value