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NAME
tree - Create and manage tree data objects.
SYNOPSIS
tree create ?-fixed? ?-dictset? ?-keyhash N? ?treeName?
tree destroy treeName...
tree names ?pattern?
tree op subcmd ?subsubcmd ...? treeName ?arg arg ...?
_________________________________________________________________
DESCRIPTION
The tree command is used to create, destroy, and provide Tcl access to a tree object. A tree object is
an ordered tree of nodes where each node can have data key-values, tags and a label. The treeview widget
uses a tree object.
INTRODUCTION
Tree provides Tcl with a rich API for managing complex data structures. Here is a simple example.
set t [tree create]
set id [$t insert 0]
$t set $id X 2
set n [$t get $id X]
# Create a node with label
$t insert 0 -label A
$t set 0->A X 1
set n [$t get 0->A X]
Labels provide convenient -> indexing relative a starting node.
Nodes may also be created with initial data values.
$t insert 0 -label A -data {X 1 Y "a 1 b 2"}
$t incr 0->A X 3
$t set 0->A Y(a) 4
Note round braces are used to access sub-values in a dict-array. See the section DICT-ARRAYS below for
details.
SYNTAX
tree create ?-fixed? ?-dictset? ?-keyhash N? ?treeName?
Creates a new tree object. The name of the new tree is returned and a Tcl command is created. If
no treeName argument is present, then the name of the tree is automatically generated in the form
"tree0", "tree1", etc relative to the current namespace. A tree name (if given) can not start
with a dash. Tree names containing the substring "#auto" will be replaced with a generated
identifier. For example, the name data#auto will translate to datatree0. Note that when the Tcl
command is deleted the tree object also gets freed.
Newly created trees always contain a single root node with id 0 that can not be deleted.
Switches for create are listed below:
-fixed Make insert automatically set the -fixed flag. This will disallow later setting of keys
not given as -data to the insert. This includes dict-array keys. See the fixed sub-
command.
-dictset Define that any update of an array field will coerce the array object to a dict object.
a dict will preserve order of sub-field keys on update. See the dictset sub-command.
-keyhash size
Define the size beyond which node key storage starts using a hash (the default is 21
keys). Normally small numbers of keys are stored as a list. But once more than size
keys are added to a node, key storage converts to a hash. This affects the order of key
iteration (eg. for get/names/values). A list will iterate in the order in which keys
were added, whereas the order of a hash is undetermined. For large numbers of ordered
keys, specify a really large size (eg. 1000000).
tree destroy treeName...
Releases one of more trees. The Tcl command associated with treeName is also removed. Trees are
reference counted. The internal tree data object isn't destroyed until no one else is using the
tree.
tree names ?pattern?
Returns the names of all tree objects. if a pattern argument is given, then the only those trees
whose name matches pattern will be listed.
tree op subcmd ?subsubcmd ...? treeName ?arg arg ...?
Provide direct calls to sub-commands, without going through the object command. Aside from self
documentating, it allows wize to provide support checked tree calls.
NODE IDS AND TAGS
Nodes in a tree object may be referenced by id or by tag. Each node has a unique serial number or id
that is assigned to it at creation. The id of an node never changes or is reused unless all nodes in a
tree are delete.
A node may also have any number of tags associated with it. A tag is just a string of characters, and it
may take any form but can not start with an integer. For example, "x123" is valid, but "123x" is not.
The same tag may be associated with one or multiple nodes (ranges or tagnode). Ranges are commonly used
to group nodes in various interesting ways.
Commands that take a tagnode can operate on ranges and will accept either a tag or a list of zero or more
integer node numbers. A node-list may contain only integers, and can not have leading spaces. Node-
lists simplify the use of iterating commands because it avoids excessive use of eval.
There are four built-in or psuedo tags:
all Applies to every node in the tree.
nonroot Applies to every node in the tree except the root node.
rootchildren
Applies to every node in the tree whose parent is the root node.
root Managed automatically by the tree object, root specifies the node that is currently set
as the root node for the tree.
When specifying nodes in tree object commands, if the specifier is an integer then it is assumed to refer
to the single node with that id. If the specifier is not an integer, then it is assumed to refer to all
of the nodes in the tree that have a tag matching the specifier. The symbol node is used below to
indicate that an argument specifies either an id or a tag that selects a single node. A tagnode is
either a tag that selects a group of nodes, or it's a list of zero or more integer node numbers. Many
tree commands only operate on a single node at a time; if node is specified in a way that names multiple
items, then an error "refers to more than one node" is generated.
NODE MODIFIERS
You can also specify node in relation to another node by appending one or more modifiers to the node id
or tag after ->. A modifier refers to a node in relation to the specified node. For example,
"root->firstchild" selects the first subtree of the root node.
The following modifiers are available:
firstchild
Selects the first child of the node.
lastchild Selects the last child of the node.
nextnode Selects the next node in preorder to the node.
nextsibling
Selects the next sibling of the node.
parentnode
Selects the parent of the node.
prevnode Selects the previous node in preorder to the node.
prevsibling
Selects the previous sibling of the node.
maxnode The maximum node number.
"label"
ยดlabel'
label Selects the child node whose label is label. Enclosing label in quotes (double or
single) supports labels with embedded spaces and prevents matching reserved words (eg. a
node labeled "parentnode"). If mulitiple child nodes have the same label, the first
matching node is used.
It's an error if the node can't be found. For example, lastchild and firstchild will generate errors if
the node has no children. The exception to this is the index operation which returns -1, allowing you to
test if a modifier is valid.
TREE OPERATIONS
Once you create a tree object, you can use its Tcl command to query or modify it. The general form is
treeName operation ?arg?... Both operation and its arguments determine the exact behavior of the
command. The operations available for trees are listed below.
treeName ancestor node1 node2
Returns the mutual ancestor of the two nodes node1 and node2. The ancestor can be one of the two
nodes. For example, if node1 and node2 are the same nodes, their ancestor is node1.
treeName append node key string ?string ...?
Append one or more strings to node/key value.
treeName appendi tagnode key string ?string ...?
The same as append but accepts a multi-node tag and an undefined key will be initialized to {}.
Returns the number of nodes updated.
treeName apply node ?switches?
Runs commands for all nodes matching the criteria given by switches for the subtree designated by
node. By default all nodes match, but you can set switches to narrow the match. This operation
differs from find in two ways: 1) Tcl commands can be invoked both pre- and post-traversal of a
node and 2) the tree is always traversed in depth first order.
The -exact, -glob, and -regexp switches indicate both what kind of pattern matching to perform and
the pattern. By default each pattern will be compared with the node label. You can set more than
one of these switches. If any of the patterns match (logical or), the node matches. If the -key
switch is used, it designates the data field to be matched.
The valid switches are listed below:
-depth number
Descend at most number (a non-negative integer) levels If number is 1 this means only
apply the tests to the children of node.
-exact string
Matches each node using string. The node must match string exactly.
-glob string
Test each node to string using global pattern matching. Matching is done in a fashion
similar to that used by string match.
-invert Invert the results of the pattern matching of -name.
-isleaf Only test nodes with no children.
-istree Only test nodes with children.
-key key
-keyglob key
-keyregexp key
-keyexact key
If pattern matching is selected (using the -exact, -glob, or -regexp switches), compare
the values of the data field keyed by key instead of the node's label. If no pattern
matching switches are set, then any node with this data key will match. The field names
may also be patterns using -keyglob, etc.
-nocase Ignore case when matching patterns.
-precommand command
Invoke command for each matching node. Before command is invoked, the id of the node is
appended. You can control processing by the return value of command. If command
generates an error, processing stops and the find operation returns an error. But if
command returns break, then processing stops, no error is generated. If command returns
continue, then processing stops on that subtree and continues on the next.
-postcommand command
Invoke command for each matching node. Before command is invoked, the id of the node is
appended. You can control processing by the return value of command. If command
generates an error, processing stops and the find operation returns an error. But if
command returns break, then processing stops, no error is generated. If command returns
continue, then processing stops on that subtree and continues on the next.
-regexp string
Test each node using string as a regular expression pattern.
-tag string
Only test nodes that have the tag string.
-usepath Use the node's full path when comparing nodes. The node's full path is a list of
labels, starting from the root of each ancestor and the node label. The default is to
compare only the node label.
treeName attach ?-notags? ?treeObject?
Queries or attaches to an existing tree object treeObject. This is primarly used where the tree
object was previously created via the C API (eg. via TreeView). The current tree associated with
treeName is discarded. In addition, the current set of tags, notifier events, and traces are
removed. If -notags is given, tags will not be shared.
treeName children ?-labels? node ?first? ?last?
Returns a list of children for node. If node is a leaf, then an empty string is returned. If
first and/or last are given they are the integer index of the children to display. If the -labels
option is used, labels are returned instead of the nodes.
treeName copy srcNode ?destTree? parentNode ?switches?
Copies srcNode into parentNode. Both nodes srcNode and parentNode must already exist. The id of
the new node is returned. You can copy from one tree to another. If a destTree argument is
present, it indicates the name of the destination tree. By default both the source and
destination trees are the same. The valid switches are listed below:
-label string
Label destNode as string. By default, destNode has the same label as srcNode.
-overwrite
Overwrite nodes that already exist. Normally nodes are always created, even if there
already exists a node by the same name. This switch indicates to add or overwrite the
node's data fields.
-recurse
Recursively copy all the subtrees of srcNode as well. In this case, srcNode can't be an
ancestor of destNode as it would result in a cyclic copy.
-reverse
Reverse the direction of the copy.
-tags Copy tag information. Normally the following node is copied: its label and data fields.
This indicates to copy tags as well.
treeName create ?switches?
Cause the creation of zero or more nodes. Exactly one of -num, -nodes or -path is required. This
can create all nodes in a given -path or efficiently populate a tree with large numbers of nodes.
The return values is the id of the last created node (or -path element). The valid flags for
switches are described below.
-fixed Set the fixed flag.
-data list
Data to set in each node.
-labelstart number
The label generated nodes is to use a sequence number starting from number. The default
is to just use the node id.
-nodes list
List of nodes ids to create. The -offset option can specify a constant to add.
-num number
The number of nodes to create.
-offset number
Number to add to each element in -nodes. For example, if loading sqlite rowids you
should use 1. The default is 0.
-parent node
The node to insert children into. The default is the root node.
-path pathList
Verify that a path exists and create any missing nodes. Uses labels in pathList to
lookup nodes, creating them if not found. The id for the last node in the path is
returned (created or not).
-pos number
The position where to insert child nodes. The default is -1, meaning append.
-prefix str
String prefix to add to each nodes label.
-start number
Node nuber to start from when using -num. The default is 1.
-tags tagList
List of tags to add to each newly created node.
treeName degree node
Returns the number of children of node.
treeName delete node...
Recursively deletes one or more nodes from the tree. The node and all its descendants are
removed. The one exception is the root node. In this case, only its descendants are removed.
The root node will remain. Any tags or traces on the nodes are released.
treeName depth node
Returns the depth of the node. The depth is the number of steps from the node to the root of the
tree. The depth of the root node is 0.
treeName dictset ?bool?
Get or set the dictset flag for the tree which causes any set of an array sub-fields to force the
value to type dict. Unlike array types, dicts preserve the order of elements. Setting this to
one has the same effect as using the -dictset flag at tree creation time.
treeName dump node ?switches?
Save tree data for node and its descendants. With the -file option, output goes to the file
fileName (this is unsupported in a safe interp). With the -channel option, data is output to
channel chan. If neither option is given, the dump is returned as data.
The subtree designated by node is traversed to obtain the following information for each node: 1)
the node's path relative to node, 2) a sublist key value pairs representing the node's data
fields, and 3) a sublist of tags. and 4) the label This list returned can be used later to copy
or restore the tree with the restore operation.
The valid switches are listed below.
-channel chan
Obtain data from from the given channel chan. The channel is not closed afterwards.
-file fileName
Obtain data from from the file. fileName. This options is unsupported in a safe interp.
-keys list
A list of patterns of matching keys to be dumped.
-skipkeys list
A list of patterns of matching keys not to be dumped.
-tag pattern
A pattern match for tags to include in a node dump.
-skiptag pattern
A pattern match for tags to not include in a node dump.
-notags
Do not restore any tags
-nopath
To save space, do not dump the full path for each node. Instead output periods for all but
the last path element. Full paths are used only for partial restores.
treeName exists node ?key?
Indicates if node exists in the tree. If a key argument is present then the command also
indicates if the named data field exists.
treeName find ?switches?
Finds for all nodes matching the criteria given by switches for the subtree designated by node. A
list of the selected nodes is returned. By default all nodes match, but you can set switches to
narrow the match.
The -exact, -glob, and -regexp switches indicate what kind of pattern matching to perform for
-name. By default the pattern will be compared with the node label. If the -key switch is used,
it designates the data field to be matched.
The order in which the nodes are traversed is controlled by the -order switch. The possible
orderings are preorder, postorder, inorder, and breadthfirst. The default is preorder.
The valid switches are listed below:
-addtag string
Add the tag string to each selected node. The tag will be created even if no nodes are
tagged.
-column key
Use value with field given by key. Like the treeview find -column option, this key may
contain an array referrence.
-cmdargs columns
Specify columns whose values are to be appended to -command.
-command command
Invoke command for each matching node. Before command is invoked, the id of the node is
appended. You can control processing by the return value of command. If command
generates an error, processing stops and the find operation returns an error. But if
command returns break, then processing stops, no error is generated. If command returns
continue, then processing stops on that subtree and continues on the next. If command
returns return, then the returned integer is used to indicate 1 for match or 0 for
mismatch.
-count Just return the number of matches.
-depth number
Include only nodes with level equal to number.
-exact Matches each node exactly.
-exec script
Specifies a Tcl script to be evaluated for each matching node. If -var was also
specified, that variable is set with the value of the node id before each evaluation.
Otherwise, percent sustitutions are performed: note this is much less efficient than
using either -var or -command
The result of each eval gets appended to the return list, unless the script issues a
CONTINUE, in which case that node is skipped.
The available percent substitutions on string are:
%# The id of the node.
%W The pathname of the tree.
%p The label of the node.
%P The full pathname of the node.
%R The -> delimited path from root, eg. "root->able->baker->charlie"
%r The -> delimited path from 0, eg. "0->able->baker->charlie"
%T The dot delimited tag path eg. ".able.baker.charlie"
%V The value if using -key or the label otherwise.
%D The data for the node, ie. like that returned from get.
%% Translates to a single percent.
-glob Test each node using global pattern matching. Matching is done in a fashion similar to
that used by the string match.
-invert Invert the pattern matching of -name.
-isarray Only test nodes where the specified -key value is an array. Can not be used with -name.
The -invert flag will invert the meaning of the check. Note that this will attempt to
convert the key value in each traversed node into an array type.
-isempty Only match nodes where the specified -column key value was unset.
-isfixed Only test nodes that have used fixed 1.
-isleaf Only test nodes with no children.
-isnotfixed
Only test nodes that have not used fixed 1.
-istree Only test nodes with children.
-keycount num
Only test if number of keys is equal to num.
-key key
-keyglob key
-keyregexp key
-keyexact key
Compare the values of the data field keyed by key instead of the node's label. If no
-name pattern is used then any node with this data key will match. The key names may
also be patterns using -keyglob, etc.
-limit number
Stop processing after number (a positive integer) matches.
-maxdepth number
Include only nodes at level number or less.
-mindepth number
Include only nodes at level number or greater.
-name string
The name to use for pattern matching.
-nocase Ignore case when matching patterns.
-nodes tagnode
Search only in tagnode, which is either a tag or a list of nodes ids. This makes
possible nested searches. Note this option is incompatible with -top and -notop.
-notop Exclude the -top or starting node.
-order string
Traverse the tree and process nodes according to string. String can be one of the
following:
breadthfirst
Process the node and the subtrees at each sucessive level. Each node on a
level is processed before going to the next level.
inorder Recursively process the nodes of the first subtree, the node itself, and any
the remaining subtrees.
postorder Recursively process all subtrees before the node.
preorder Recursively process the node first, then any subtrees (default).
-usepath Use the node's full path when doing the comparison. The default is to compare only the
node label.
-regexp Test each node using regular expression pattern matching.
-reldepth Change the meaning of -depth, -mindepth and -maxdepth to be relative to the -top node.
-return key
Return the value of the given key, or the empty string if none. If the given key is the
empty string, the node label will be returned. If no value was found and the given key
starts with a percent returns the sustitution as per -exec. Note that a percent
substitution longer than 2 chars will append values as list elements.
-strict Generate an error if a given key value is unset when using -return.
-top node Search is only at node and it's descendants. The default is the root node.
-var variable
A variable to set with the node id before each iteration of the -exec script.
-withouttag string
Only test nodes that don't have the tag string.
-withtag string
Only test nodes that have the tag string.
treeName findchild node label
Searches for a child node label in node. The id of the child node is returned if found.
Otherwise -1 is returned. This is the same as using index node->label.
treeName firstchild node
Returns the id of the first child in the node's list of subtrees. If node is a leaf (has no
children), then -1 is returned.
treeName fixed node ?isfixed?
Get or set the fixed key-fields flag for a node. New key-fields can be added to a node only if
fixed is 0 (the default) If node is given as an empty string, operates on the tree flag. Note
that copied and restored nodes do not preserve the fixed state.
treeName foreach var tagnode script
Provides a foreach loop for tree. For each node in tagnode the node-id is assigned to var and
then script is evaluated. The tagnode is either a tag or a list of nodes as described in the
section NODE IDS AND TAGS above.
treeName get node ?key? ?defaultValue?
Returns a list of key-value pairs of data for node. If key is present, then only the value for
that particular data field is returned. It's normally an error if node does not contain the data
field key. But if you provide a defaultValue argument, this value is returned instead (node will
still not contain key). This feature can be used to access a data field of node without first
testing if it exists. This operation may trigger read data traces.
treeName incr node key ?amount?
Increment value by 1 or given amount and return the value. The incr operation normally tries to
use integers, but uses doubles when one of value or amount is a double.
treeName incri tagnode key ?amount?
The same as incr but accepts a multi-node tag and an undefined key will be initialized to 0.
Returns the number of nodes updated.
treeName index node
Returns the id of node. In addition to standard node id form, node can also be a path (a list of
labels from the root) as returned by the path command. If node is invalid, then -1 is returned.
treeName insert parent ?switches?
Inserts a new node into parent node parent. The id of the new node is returned. The following
switches are available:
-after child
Position node after child. The node child must be a child of parent.
-before child
Position node before child. The node child must be a child of parent.
-data dataList
Sets the value for each data field in dataList for the new node. DataList is a list of
key-value pairs. May not be used in conjuction with -names or -values.
-fixed bool
If bool is 1, set fixed field mode after initializing the key/value pairs from -data.
This disallows creation of new key fields after the node is created. If not given, the
tree default for fixed is used.
-label string
Designates the labels of the node as string. By default, nodes are labeled as 0, 1,
etc.
-names nameList
The names for the data fields. This must have the same length as -values, and may not
be used in conjuction with -data.
-node id Designates the id for the node. Normally new ids are automatically generated. This
allows you to create a node with a specific id. It is an error if the id is already
used by another node in the tree.
-pos number
Inserts the node into parent's list of children at position number. The default is to
append.
-pretags tagList
Adds each tag in tagList to the new node, before data is added. Unlike -tags, traces on
these tags will fire on key data during the insert.
-tags tagList
Adds each tag in tagList to the new node. TagList is a list of tags, so be careful if a
tag has embedded space.
-values valueList
The values for the data fields. This must have the same length as -names, and may not
be used in conjuction with -data.
treeName is property args
Indicates the property of a node. Both property and args determine the property being tested.
Returns 1 if true and 0 otherwise. The following property and args are valid:
ancestor node1 node2
Indicates if node1 is an ancestor of node2.
before node1 node2
Indicates if node1 is before node2 in depth first traversal.
leaf node Indicates if node is a leaf (it has no subtrees).
root node Indicates if node is the designated root. This can be changed by the root operation.
treeName ismodified ?nodeOrTag? ?isflag?
Get or set modified state for the tree or nodes. With no args returns modified state for tree.
With one args returns modified state for a node. With two args set modified state for one or more
nodes. In the last case, where ?nodeOrTag? is the tag all, the state for the tree is also set.
Newly created nodes are always considered to be modified until explicitly cleared. After
clearing, subsequent updates to keys or tags will toggle the node (and tree) modified again.
treeName isset node key
Return 1 if key is set in node.
treeName keys node ?tagnode ...?
Return list of unique keys for all of the given nodes in tagnode. Keys are in no particular
order. Accepts nodes and tags or all. See also names.
treeName label node ?newLabel?
Returns the label of the node designated by node. If newLabel is present, the node is relabeled
using it as the new label.
treeName lappend node key value ?value ...?
Append one or more list values to node/key value.
treeName lappendi tagnode key value ?value ...?
The same as lappend but accepts a multi-node tag and an undefined key will be initialized to {}.
Returns the number of nodes updated.
treeName lastchild node
Returns the id of the last child in the node's list of subtrees. If node is a leaf (has no
children), then -1 is returned.
treeName modify tagnode key value ?key value...?
Update one or more fields in one or more nodes in tagnode. As with set, node can be a tag
referring to multiple nodes. This is identical to set, except an error is thrown if any of the
key fields do not exist. Despite the error, all nodes that do have said fields get updated. For
modifying a single node, see update.
treeName move node newParent ?switches?
Moves node into newParent. Node is appended to the list children of newParent. Node can not be an
ancestor of newParent. The valid flags for switches are described below.
-after child
Position node after child. The node child must be a child of newParent.
-before child
Position node before child. The node child must be a child of newParent.
-pos number
Inserts node into parent's list of children at position number. The default is -1 to
append the node.
treeName names node ?key? ?pattern?
Return key names for node, in the order defined (if possible). If a key is given, attempts to
return ARRAY fields (see DICT-ARRAYS). If a pattern is given, the array keys are limited to those
matching the glob pattern. An error is thrown if the convert to array fails (ie. list-length is
odd). The type command can be used to query the type. See also values.
treeName next node
Returns the next node from node in a preorder traversal. If node is the last node in the tree,
then -1 is returned.
treeName nextsibling node
Returns the node representing the next subtree from node in its parent's list of children. If
node is the last child, then -1 is returned.
treeName nodeseq ?start?
Get or set the start sequence number for subsequent node insertions not using -node. The default
is 0.
treeName notify args
Manages notification events that indicate that the tree structure has been changed. See the
NOTIFY OPERATIONS section below.
treeName oldvalue ?newvalue?
Return the value from before the last (untraced) change operation. This is used primarly by write
traces wishing to restore a key to it's pre-write value (eg. read-only variables). The oldvalue
is saved internally everytime a change operation occurs to a key value by deferring its
deallocation. Changes made during node traces do not affect oldvalue.
If newvalue is provided, the current value of oldvalue is discarded and replaced. This is useful
really only for releasing large objects.
treeName parent node
Returns the parent node of node. If node is the root of the tree, then -1 is returned.
treeName path node ?delim? ?prefix?
Returns the full path (from root) of node using the node labels. If delim is not specified, the
result is a list. Otherwise, the result is a string starting with prefix and each element of the
path separated by delim. This latter form is useful for building tags like: .able.baker
treeName position ?-sort? ?-format ftype? node ?node ...?
Returns the position of the node(s) in its parent's list of children. Positions are numbered from
0. The position of the root node is always 0. The value of ftype is one of: position parent-at-
position id+position id+parent-at-position.
treeName previous node
Returns the previous node from node in a preorder traversal. If node is the root of the tree,
then -1 is returned.
treeName prevsibling node
Returns the node representing the previous subtree from node in its parent's list of children. If
node is the first child, then -1 is returned.
treeName restore node switches
Performs the inverse function of the dump operation, restoring nodes to the tree. The format of
the input data is exactly what is returned by the dump operation. It's a list containing
information for each node to be restored. The information consists of 1) the relative path of the
node, 2) a sublist of key value pairs representing the node's data, 3) a list of tags for the
node, and 4) the label. Nodes are created starting from node. Nodes can be listed in any order.
If a node's path describes ancestor nodes that do not already exist, they are automatically
created.
The valid switches are listed below. Exactly one of -channel, -file or -data must be specified.
-addtags
List of tags to add to each node restored node. Each tag will be created only if a node
loaded.
-channel chan
Obtain data from from the given channel chan. The channel is not closed afterwards.
-data string
Data input is from the given string.
-file fileName
Obtain data from from the file. fileName. This options is unsupported in a safe interp.
-keys list
A list of patterns of matching keys to be restored.
-skipkeys list
A list of patterns of matching keys not to be restored.
-tag pattern
A pattern match for tags to include in a node restore.
-skiptag pattern
A pattern match for tags to not include in a node restore.
-notags
Do not restore any tags
-overwrite
Overwrite nodes that already exist. Normally nodes are always created, even if there
already exists a node by the same name. This switch indicates to overwrite existing node's
data fields.
treeName root ?node?
Returns the id of the root node. Normally this is node 0. If a node argument is provided, it
will become the new root of the tree. This lets you temporarily work within a subset of the tree.
Changing root affects operations such as next, path, previous, etc.
treeName set tagnode key value ?key value...?
Sets one or more data fields in node. tagode may be a tag that represents several nodes and a
count of the number of nodes updated is returned. Key is the name of the data field to be set, or
an array-like reference such as field(subkey). See the DICT-ARRAYS section below. Value is the
respective keys value. The Key will be created if it does not exists (see modify).
The set operation triggers write and create data traces.
treeName size node
Returns the number of nodes in the subtree. This includes the node and all its descendants. The
size of a leaf node is 1.
treeName sort node ?switches?
Return nodes in sorted order.
-ascii Compare strings using the ASCII collation order.
-command string
Use command string as a comparison command. To compare two elements, evaluate a Tcl
script consisting of command with the five elements appended as additional arguments:
the tree, node1, node1, label1, label2. The script should return an integer less than,
equal to, or greater than zero if the first element is to be considered less than, equal
to, or greater than the second, respectively.
-decreasing
Sort in decreasing order (largest items come first).
-dictionary
Compare strings using a dictionary-style comparison. This is the same as -ascii except
(a) case is ignored except as a tie-breaker and (b) if two strings contain embedded
numbers, the numbers compare as integers, not characters. For example, in -dictionary
mode, bigBoy sorts between bigbang and bigboy, and x10y sorts between x9y and x11y.
-integer Compare the nodes as integers.
-key string
Sort based upon the node's data field keyed by string. Normally nodes are sorted
according to their label. label.
-real Compare the nodes as real numbers.
-recurse Recursively sort the entire subtree rooted at node.
-reorder Recursively sort subtrees for each node. Warning. Unlike the normal flat sort, where a
list of nodes is returned, this will reorder the tree.
-usepath Compare the full path of each node. The default is to compare only the node label.
treeName sqlload ?switches? dbhfile sqlstmt
Load tree with the results of evaling the SQL in sqlstmt using dbhfile. The evaluated SQL creates
one tree-node per row result. The returned value is the number of rows loaded. Dbhfile is either
an sqlite3 database handle, or an sqlite3 file.
The sqlload command can populate a tree with 10k nodes about 7 times faster than sqlite3 eval. It
also preserves NULL values and object types (eg. int or double) used internally by sqlite. This
eliminates later reconversion within tree. See the SQLLOAD EXAMPLE below.
The following switches are available:
-addtags taglist
The tags in taglist to add to each inserted node. Each tag will be created only if a
node loaded.
-fixed Set the fixed flag to disallow new keys after creation.
-key name Store the entire result in the key name instead of creating one key per column. Array
notation can be used to then access column results. This is more efficent as it
initially stores just one object per row. Conversion to an array is at the first array
access (if that occurs).
-labelcol column
The value of column is used as the label. By default the label is the node id.
-maprowid num
This option maps the node id to the rowid plus the constant num. The key for rowid will
also not be created. This is applicable only if rowid is returned in the result-set of
sqlstmt. If rowid is not in the result set, this option is ignored. If mapping fails
(because the tree already contains a requested node) the load will abort at that point
with an error. Note that num must be >= 1 since sqlite rowids start from 0, but the
root node of the tree uses the node-id 0.
-max num The maximum number of rows to return. The default is 100,000. Note that SQL queries on
large tables should probably always use LIMIT.
-nullvalue string
Define value to use for null values. The default is no value, meaning do not set key if
value is null. Note this is different from the sqlite Tcl extension which uses an empty
string for NULL.
-parent string
The node where results are inserted as child nodes. The default is the tree root.
-pathcol column
Name of column containing the full path where node is to be created. This works like
-treecols, but uses a singl columns.
-skipcols columns
The given columns are not to be added as keys. This is useful mostly in conjuction with
-tagcol, -labelcol, -pathcol.
-pos num Where to insert into parents list of children. Default is -1, meaning to append.
-tagcol column
The value of column is added as a tag.
-treecols columns
Columns whose values concatenated give the path of where node is to be created. This
works like -pathcol, but uses multiple columns.
treeName sum ?switches? tagnode key ?key ...?
Add values in key fields for all tagnode and return the sum. Values that are not doubles (or
integer) are ignored.
-diff value
Double value difference to ignore and not do update for -runtotal. This is unused when
using -int.
-force Force update -runtotal even if value was unchanged. Normally, a check is made to avoid
updating unchanged values.
-int Use and accept only integer values.
-runtotal key
Place running total in the given key field (if changed).
-start num
The start value for the sum: default is 0.
treeName supdate node key value ?key value...?
Like update, but uses a string comparison to avoid writes if the value will not be changed. This
is useful primarily for avoiding unnecessary write traces.
treeName tag args
Manages tags for the tree object. See the TAG OPERATIONS section below.
treeName trace args
Manages traces for data fields in the tree object. Traces cause Tcl commands to be executed
whenever a data field of a node is created, read, written, or unset. Traces can be set for a
specific node or a tag, representing possibly many nodes. See the TRACE OPERATIONS section below.
treeName type node key
Return type of value. This is the introspected type from the Tcl_Obj value passed to set.
treeName update node key value ?key value...?
Like modify, except an error is generated if a tag is used that applies to more than one node.
treeName unset node key...
Removes one or more data fields from node. Node may be a tag that represents several nodes. Key
is the name of the data field to be removed. It's not an error is node does not contain key. A
count of the number of nodes unset is returned. This operation may trigger unset data traces.
treeName values node ?key? ?withnames?
Return values for node. The values are returned in the same order as the keys returned from
names.
If a key is given, array values get returned for the key value. If withname is True, then key
names are also returned with the values. This differs from get in that the result is a true Tcl
list object, not an array object. If subsequently using an array value in a list context, this
can be more efficient by avoiding a split on string representations.
treeName vecdump vector key ?tagnode?
Dump key field to a vector. With no tagnode, dumps every node to the 1-1 corresponding vector
index. With tag dumps nodes to consequetive vector elements.
treeName vecload vector key ?tagnode?
Loads key field from a vector. With no tagnode, loads every node from the 1-1 corresponding
vector index. With tag loads nodes from consequetive vector elements.
treeName with variable ?switch? tagnode script
For each node in tagnode, evaluate the script after assigning key values to elements of the array
variable. The -keys limits which keys may be assigned. If script completes normally, and any of
the key values change in the variable, then the updates are reflected back into the key values
(unless -noupdate is used). Unsetting a variable key will cause that change to be ignored. New
elements added to the array variable are ignored.
Doing a return, break, or continue inside script will still cause updates to copy back, but
processing will stop and (unless -break is used) the return code will become the return code to
the caller. This means that a break, continue, and return will propagate up through multiple
nested with statements to the to an enclosing foreach, while, etc. But -break can be used to
change this, making with behave more like a foreach loop.
If -keys is not used, the list of key names will be stored in variable(*) and the node id stored
in variable(#) (which could then be overwritten by a key of that name). By default, the array is
not cleaned up before or after each execution. However, if -unset is used, the array is unset at
the start of each iteration, and -init can be used to specify a default value. Also, long running
queries can speed up by initializing variables prior to the call to with.
If the variable name string is zero length, an simple variables are used instead of an array, and
* and # do not get set. Note, when not using -keys, arbitrary local variables can get
overwritten.
If -array is used, with operates on the keys of an tree array/dict instead of the keys of the
node.
Upon normal completion, the number of times script was evaluated is returned.
The valid switches are listed below:
-array key
Specifies a single key that is to be treated as an array-dict. The fields of the array
for that one key are then used (instead of keys from the whole node). This changes the
meaning of -keys and -glob to be the keys of the array rather than the keys of the node.
Nodes missing the given array key will be skipped. If a key value can not be converted
to an array, an error will occur.
-break Treat break and continue like foreach does rather than just passing them up to the
enclosing script body.
-init value
Variables specified by -keys are to be initialized to value for each node where key is
missing.
-keys keylist
Copy only the named keys and does not set (*).
-glob pattern
Pattern to limit matching keys. Can not be used with -keys.
-noupdate Ignore changes to array variables. This do not copy changed variables back into tree
nodes.
-unset Unset the array variable at the begin of each evaluation.
DICT-ARRAYS
Round braces can be used to access sub-values of a key value. In effect, this means each key value can
be an array (or dict), eg.
set t [tree create]
set n [$t insert 0 -data {a 1 b 2 c "x 9 y 8 z 7"}]
$t get $n; # a 1 b 2 c {x 9 y 8 z 7}
$t get $n c; # x 9 y 8 z 7
$t get $n c(y); # 8
$t update $n c(y) 8.6
$t get $n c; # x 9 y 8.6 z 7
$t unset $n c(y)
$t get $n c; # x 9 z 7
$t set $n d 10
$t incr $n d
If a key value is a dict object tree will make use of it. If not, on access it converts the value to a
pure array hash object. The following example shows the type in a comment after each operation.
set t [tree create]
$t insert 0 -label A;
$t set 0->A X [dict create a 1 b 2 c 3]; # dict
array set q { x 1 y 2 };
$t set 0->A Y [array get q]; # dict
$t set 0->A Z {m 0 n 1}; # string
$t incr 0->A Z(m); # array
dict size [$t get 0->A Z]; # dict
One advantage of using a dict is that it preserves order. See dictset.
TAG OPERATIONS
Tags are a general means of selecting and marking nodes in the tree. A tag is just a string of
characters, and it may take any form except that of an integer. The same tag may be associated with many
different nodes.
Most tree operations use tags. And several operations let you operate on multiple nodes at once. For
example, you can use the set operation with the tag all to set a data field in for all nodes in the tree.
Tags are invoked by the tag operation. The general form is treeName tag operation ?arg?... Both
operation and its arguments determine the exact behavior of the command. The operations available for
tags are listed below.
treeName tag add string ?node?...
Adds the tag string to zero or more nodes. If no nodes are given, just creates the tag. A count
of the number of nodes tagged is returned.
treeName tag delete string node...
Remove the tag string from one or more nodes. A count of the number of nodes visited is returned.
Calling tag delete with a builtin tag is ignore.
treeName tag dump tagnode ?switches?
Dump the nodes specified by the tag tagnode.
The valid switches are listed below.
-keys list
A list of patterns of matching keys to be dumped.
-skipkeys list
A list of patterns of matching keys not to be dumped.
-tag pattern
A pattern match for tags to include in a node dump.
-skiptag pattern
A pattern match for tags to not include in a node dump.
-notags
Do not dump the tags.
-nopath
To save space, do not dump the full path for each node. Instead output periods for all but
the last path element. Full paths are used only for partial restores.
treeName tag exists string ?id?
If an id is given, return 1 (or 0) if node has (or hasn't) the tag. Otherwise, returns 1 if at
least one nodes has tag string.
treeName tag forget string ?string ...?
Removes the tag definition for one or more of string. It's not an error if the tag string does
not exist.
treeName tag lookups ?pattern?
Dump a lookup table (dictionary) of nodes-to-tags, or tags-to-nodes if pattern is given. With no
arguments, returns a pair list of nodes/tags, for nodes that have tags. With an argument, returns
a pair list of tags/nodes. lookups provides efficient bulk processing when dealing with large
numbers of nodes and/or tags.
treeName tag names ?-glob? ?-regexp? ?-nocase? ?node? ?node ...?
Returns a list of tags used by the tree. If no node argument is given, returns a list of all
known tags. Otherwise, returns the union of the tags used by all given node numbers. Patterns
can be used via -glob or -regexp. If -nocase is used, the pattern is expected to be all lower
case.
treeName tag nodes string ?string ...?
Returns a list of any nodes that have any of given string tag. If no node is tagged with any of
the string, then an empty string is returned.
TRACE OPERATIONS
Data fields can be traced much like tracing Tcl variables. Data traces cause a Tcl command to be
executed whenever data fields are created, read, written, or unset. A trace can apply to one or more
nodes. You can trace a specific node by using its id, or a group of nodes by a their tag. Note:
operations on arrays trigger on the whole key value, not the individual array element.
The tree's get, set, and unset operations can trigger various traces. The get operation can cause a read
trace to fire. The set operation causes a write trace to fire. And if the data field is written for the
first time, you will also get a create trace. The unset operation triggers unset traces.
Data traces are invoked by the trace operation. The general form is treeName trace operation ?arg?...
Both operation and its arguments determine the exact behavior of the command. The operations available
for traces are listed below.
treeName trace create node key ops command ?-bgerror?
Create a trace on data fields (or tags for tag traces) given by the pattern in key. The node
argument can be a nodeid, or a tag to refer to multiple nodes eg. all. The return value is an
identifier that can be used with "trace info" or "trace delete". Traces are temporarily disabled
while executing command within the trace.
Command is a command prefix, to which four arguments are appended before invocation: treeName,
nodeid, key and, ops. If an error occurs in command (and -bgerror was not used) the invoking
operation will also abort.
Ops indicates which operations are of interest. It consists of one or more of the following
letters:
r Invoke command whenever key is read.
w Invoke command whenever key is written.
c Invoke command whenever key is created.
u Invoke command whenever key is unset, typically with the unset command. to that.
e Invoke command whenever exists is used on an non-existant key. This can be used to
populate node key data on demand.
t Invoke command whenever tag key is added to a node.
m Invoke command when tag key gets added to more than one node. This trace can be used to
enforce tags that should be on at most one node. It can avoid later errors with tags used
in get or other commands not accepting non-unique tags.
d Invoke command whenever tag key is deleted from a node using either tag delete or tag
forget. Node deletion will not trigger this trace.
treeName trace delete traceId...
Deletes one of more traces. TraceId is the trace identifier returned by the trace create
operation.
treeName trace info traceId
Returns information about the trace traceId. TraceId is a trace identifier previously returned by
the trace create operation. It's the same information specified for the trace create operation.
It consists of the node id or tag, data field key, a string of letters indicating the operations
that are traced (it's in the same form as ops) and, the command prefix.
treeName trace names
Returns a list of identifers for all the current traces.
NOTIFY OPERATIONS
The purpose of notify is to get control when structural operations occur on a tree. This is used
internally by treeview or example when a tree object is shared. A client may create nodes, sort a tree,
move a node, etc. Notifier can cause such operations to generate events, resulting in Tcl commands being
executed.
The general form of notify is:
treeName notify operation ?arg?...
The available operation are as follows:
treeName notify create ?switches? command ?args?...
Creates a notifier for the tree. A notify identifier in the form "notify0", "notify1", etc. is
returned.
Command and args are saved and invoked whenever the tree structure is changed (controlled by
switches). Two arguments are appended to command and args before it's invoked: the id of the node
and a string representing the type of event that occured. If an error is returned by command the
invoking operation returns an error (when not using -whenidle). One or more of the following
switches are used to indicate the events that are of interest:
-bgerror Generate a background error if an error occurs.
-create Invoke command whenever a new node is added. This is called after the creation.
Returning an error will delete the node.
-delete Invoke command whenever a node has been deleted. This is called before the delete
starts to allow aborting it with an error. Deletes resulting from failed inserts are
ignored.
-disabletrace
Disable traces from firing during a notify event.
-get Invoke command whenever a node with no keys is accessed (via get or with). If a node
has at least one key, this will not trigger. The invocation occurs before the read,
meaning it can be used to implement demand loading of data keys into empty nodes (eg.
loading database row data on read).
-insert Invoke command when an insert completes. This differs from -create in that the call
occurs after the label, tags and data are added (but before -fixed gets set). This
trace applies to the subcommands create, copy, restore, sqlload, and insert (both tree
and treeview). It is useful for verifying key-data, tags and labels. Returning an
error will delete the node and cause the originating command to generate an error.
-move Invoke command at the start of a node move.
-movepost Invoke command after a node has been moved.
-sort Invoke command whenever the tree has been sorted and reordered.
-relabel Invoke command at the start of a node relabel.
-relabelpost
Invoke command after a node has been relabeled.
-allevents
Invoke command whenever any of the above events occur.
-whenidle When an event occurs don't invoke command immediately, but queue it to be run the next
time the event loop is entered and there are no events to process. If subsequent events
occur before the event loop is entered, command will still be invoked only once.
treeName notify delete notifyId
Deletes one or more notifiers from the tree. NotifyId is the notifier identifier returned by the
notify create operation.
treeName notify info notifyId
Returns information about the notify event notifyId. NotifyId is a notify identifier previously
returned by the notify create operation. It's the same information specified for the notify
create operation. It consists of the notify id, a sublist of event flags (it's in the same form
as flags) and, the command prefix.
treeName notify names
Returns a list of identifers for all the current notifiers.
TABLE EXAMPLE
The following is a simple example.
variable Users {
tom { Name "Tom Brown" Sex M Age 19 Class {4 5} Rate {A 1 B 2}}
mary { Name "Mary Brown" Sex F Age 16 Class {5} Rate {A 2}}
sam { Name "Sam Spade" Sex M Age 19 Class {3 4} Rate {B 3}}
}
set t [tree create]
foreach {i d} $Users {
# Use name in -tags so we don't have to do "0->mary" etc.
$t insert 0 -tags $i -data $d -label $i
}
$t update tom Sex F Name "Tomi Brown"
$t append sam Name " Jr"
$t lappend sam Class 5
$t incr mary Age
$t update tom Rate(A) 2
$t incr 0->mary Age
# Set a trace.
proc ::Aupd {t id key op} { tclLog "AA: $t $id $key $op" }
$t trace create all Age w ::Aupd
$t incr mary Age
# Display it.
pack [treeview .t -tree $t] -fill both -expand y
eval .t column insert end [$t keys all]
TREE EXAMPLE
The following is a nested tree example with updates.
variable Info {
system {
sol { OS Linux Version 3.4 }
bing { OS Win Version 7 }
gui { OS Mac Version 8 }
}
network {
intra { Address 192.168.1 Netmask 255.255.255.0 }
dmz { Address 192.168.10 Netmask 255.255.255.0 }
wan { Address 0.0.0.0 Netmask 0.0.0.0 Class {A 1 B 4}}
}
admins {
sully { Name "Sully Van Damme" Level 3 }
maverick { Name "Maverick Gump" Level 1 }
}
}
set s [tree create]
foreach {n vals} $Info {
set ind [$s insert 0 -label $n]
foreach {i d} $vals {
$s insert $ind -label $i -data $d
}
}
set old [$s get 0->system->bing]
$s update 0->system->bing OS Linux Version 3.4
$s update 0->network->dmz Address 192.168.11
$s update 0->network->wan Class(A) 2
eval $s set 0->system->bing $old
$s insert 0->admins -label linus -data { Name "Linus Torvalds" Level 9 }
pack [treeview .s -tree $s -width 600] -fill both -expand y
eval .s column insert end [$s keys all]
SQLLOAD EXAMPLE
Here is an example using sqlload on table cust from a database file, and displaying it in a treeview:
set t [tree create]
$t sqlload mydb.dat "select rowid,* from cust"
pack [treeview .t -tree $t -width 500] -fill both -expand y
eval .t column insert end [lsort [$t keys all]]
Although there is no corresponding sqldump command, scripting it is easy. Following is one approach.
proc sqldump {t db table {ids {}}} {
# Dump nodes from tree t into table in open sqlite database db.
if {$ids == {}} { set ids [$t children root] }
set keys [$t keys $ids]
catch { $db eval "CREATE TABLE $table ( [join $keys ,] )" }
$t with s $ids {
set nams {}
set vals {}
foreach nam $s(*) {
lappend vals $s($nam)
lappend nams $nam
}
set vals [join $vals ,]
set nams [join $nams ,]
set q [format {INSERT INTO %s (%s) VALUES (%s)} $table $nams $vals]
$db eval $q
}
}
sqlite3 [set db dbhandle] mydb.dat
sqldump $t $db cust2
TREE KEY STRING STORAGE
Key name strings are stored by default in a global hash table. However, sometimes this can be
undesirable (eg. with threading), and so the behavior may be changed (at tree create time only). To
enable per-interp storage of keys, set blt::treeKeysLocal to 1 before tree creation. To enable per-tree
storage of keys, set blt::treeKeysLocal to 2 before tree creation. The above is unavailable in safe
interps.
C LANGUAGE API
Blt_TreeApply, Blt_TreeApplyBFS, Blt_TreeApplyDFS, Blt_TreeChangeRoot, Blt_TreeCreate,
Blt_TreeCreateEventHandler, Blt_TreeCreateNode, Blt_TreeCreateTrace, Blt_TreeDeleteEventHandler,
Blt_TreeDeleteNode, Blt_TreeDeleteTrace, Blt_TreeExists, Blt_TreeFindChild, Blt_TreeFirstChild,
Blt_TreeFirstKey, Blt_TreeGetNode, Blt_TreeGetToken, Blt_TreeGetValue, Blt_TreeIsAncestor,
Blt_TreeIsBefore, Blt_TreeIsLeaf, Blt_TreeLastChild, Blt_TreeMoveNode, Blt_TreeName, Blt_TreeNextKey,
Blt_TreeNextNode, Blt_TreeNextSibling, Blt_TreeNodeDegree, Blt_TreeNodeDepth, Blt_TreeNodeId,
Blt_TreeNodeLabel, Blt_TreeNodeParent, Blt_TreePrevNode, Blt_TreePrevSibling, Blt_TreeRelabelNode,
Blt_TreeReleaseToken, Blt_TreeRootNode, Blt_TreeSetValue, Blt_TreeSize, Blt_TreeSortNode, and
Blt_TreeUnsetValue.
KEYWORDS
tree, treeview, widget
BLT 2.5 blt::tree(3tcl)