scan - Parse string using conversion specifiers in the style of sscanf
scan string format ?varName varName ...?
scan(1t) Tcl Built-In Commands scan(1t)
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NAME
scan - Parse string using conversion specifiers in the style of sscanf
SYNOPSIS
scan string format ?varName varName ...?
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INTRODUCTION
This command parses substrings from an input string in a fashion simi-
lar to the ANSI C sscanf procedure and returns a count of the number of
conversions performed, or -1 if the end of the input string is reached
before any conversions have been performed. String gives the input to
be parsed and format indicates how to parse it, using % conversion
specifiers as in sscanf. Each varName gives the name of a variable;
when a substring is scanned from string that matches a conversion spec-
ifier, the substring is assigned to the corresponding variable. If no
varName variables are specified, then scan works in an inline manner,
returning the data that would otherwise be stored in the variables as a
list. In the inline case, an empty string is returned when the end of
the input string is reached before any conversions have been performed.
DETAILS ON SCANNING
Scan operates by scanning string and format together. If the next
character in format is a blank or tab then it matches any number of
white space characters in string (including zero). Otherwise, if it is
not a % character then it must match the next character of string.
When a % is encountered in format, it indicates the start of a conver-
sion specifier. A conversion specifier contains up to four fields
after the %: a XPG3 position specifier (or a * to indicate the con-
verted value is to be discarded instead of assigned to any variable); a
number indicating a maximum substring width; a size modifier; and a
conversion character. All of these fields are optional except for the
conversion character. The fields that are present must appear in the
order given above.
When scan finds a conversion specifier in format, it first skips any
white-space characters in string (unless the conversion character is [
or c). Then it converts the next input characters according to the
conversion specifier and stores the result in the variable given by the
next argument to scan.
OPTIONAL POSITIONAL SPECIFIER
If the % is followed by a decimal number and a $, as in "%2$d", then
the variable to use is not taken from the next sequential argument.
Instead, it is taken from the argument indicated by the number, where 1
corresponds to the first varName. If there are any positional speci-
fiers in format then all of the specifiers must be positional. Every
varName on the argument list must correspond to exactly one conversion
specifier or an error is generated, or in the inline case, any position
can be specified at most once and the empty positions will be filled in
with empty strings.
OPTIONAL SIZE MODIFIER
The size modifier field is used only when scanning a substring into one
of Tcl's integer values. The size modifier field dictates the integer
range acceptable to be stored in a variable, or, for the inline case,
in a position in the result list. The syntactically valid values for
the size modifier are h, L, l, and ll. The h size modifier value is
equivalent to the absence of a size modifier in the the conversion
specifier. Either one indicates the integer range to be stored is lim-
ited to the same range produced by the int() function of the expr com-
mand. The L size modifier is equivalent to the l size modifier. Either
one indicates the integer range to be stored is limited to the same
range produced by the wide() function of the expr command. The ll size
modifier indicates that the integer range to be stored is unlimited.
MANDATORY CONVERSION CHARACTER
The following conversion characters are supported:
d The input substring must be a decimal integer. It is read in
and the integer value is stored in the variable, truncated as
required by the size modifier value.
o The input substring must be an octal integer. It is read in and
the integer value is stored in the variable, truncated as
required by the size modifier value.
x or X The input substring must be a hexadecimal integer. It is read
in and the integer value is stored in the variable, truncated as
required by the size modifier value.
b The input substring must be a binary integer. It is read in and
the integer value is stored in the variable, truncated as
required by the size modifier value.
u The input substring must be a decimal integer. The integer
value is truncated as required by the size modifier value, and
the corresponding unsigned value for that truncated range is
computed and stored in the variable as a decimal string. The
conversion makes no sense without reference to a truncation
range, so the size modifier ll is not permitted in combination
with conversion character u.
i The input substring must be an integer. The base (i.e. decimal,
octal, or hexadecimal) is determined by the C convention (lead-
ing 0 for octal; prefix 0x for hexadecimal). The integer value
is stored in the variable, truncated as required by the size
modifier value.
c A single character is read in and its Unicode value is stored in
the variable as an integer value. Initial white space is not
skipped in this case, so the input substring may be a white-
space character.
s The input substring consists of all the characters up to the
next white-space character; the characters are copied to the
variable.
e or f or g or E or G
The input substring must be a floating-point number consisting
of an optional sign, a string of decimal digits possibly con-
taining a decimal point, and an optional exponent consisting of
an e or E followed by an optional sign and a string of decimal
digits. It is read in and stored in the variable as a floating-
point value.
[chars]
The input substring consists of one or more characters in chars.
The matching string is stored in the variable. If the first
character between the brackets is a ] then it is treated as part
of chars rather than the closing bracket for the set. If chars
contains a sequence of the form a-b then any character between a
and b (inclusive) will match. If the first or last character
between the brackets is a -, then it is treated as part of chars
rather than indicating a range.
[^chars]
The input substring consists of one or more characters not in
chars. The matching string is stored in the variable. If the
character immediately following the ^ is a ] then it is treated
as part of the set rather than the closing bracket for the set.
If chars contains a sequence of the form a-b then any character
between a and b (inclusive) will be excluded from the set. If
the first or last character between the brackets is a -, then it
is treated as part of chars rather than indicating a range
value.
n No input is consumed from the input string. Instead, the total
number of characters scanned from the input string so far is
stored in the variable.
The number of characters read from the input for a conversion is the
largest number that makes sense for that particular conversion (e.g.
as many decimal digits as possible for %d, as many octal digits as pos-
sible for %o, and so on). The input substring for a given conversion
terminates either when a white-space character is encountered or when
the maximum substring width has been reached, whichever comes first.
If a * is present in the conversion specifier then no variable is
assigned and the next scan argument is not consumed.
DIFFERENCES FROM ANSI SSCANF
The behavior of the scan command is the same as the behavior of the
ANSI C sscanf procedure except for the following differences:
[1] %p conversion specifier is not supported.
[2] For %c conversions a single character value is converted to a
decimal string, which is then assigned to the corresponding var-
Name; no substring width may be specified for this conversion.
[3] The h modifier is always ignored and the l and L modifiers are
ignored when converting real values (i.e. type double is used
for the internal representation). The ll modifier has no sscanf
counterpart.
[4] If the end of the input string is reached before any conversions
have been performed and no variables are given, an empty string
is returned.
EXAMPLES
Convert a UNICODE character to its numeric value:
set char "x"
set value [scan $char %c]
Parse a simple color specification of the form #RRGGBB using hexadeci-
mal conversions with substring sizes:
set string "#08D03F"
scan $string "#%2x%2x%2x" r g b
Parse a HH:MM time string, noting that this avoids problems with octal
numbers by forcing interpretation as decimals (if we did not care, we
would use the %i conversion instead):
set string "08:08" ;# *Not* octal!
if {[scan $string "%d:%d" hours minutes] != 2} {
error "not a valid time string"
}
# We have to understand numeric ranges ourselves...
if {$minutes < 0 || $minutes > 59} {
error "invalid number of minutes"
}
Break a string up into sequences of non-whitespace characters (note the
use of the %n conversion so that we get skipping over leading white-
space correct):
set string " a string {with braced words} + leading space "
set words {}
while {[scan $string %s%n word length] == 2} {
lappend words $word
set string [string range $string $length end]
}
Parse a simple coordinate string, checking that it is complete by look-
ing for the terminating character explicitly:
set string "(5.2,-4e-2)"
# Note that the spaces before the literal parts of
# the scan pattern are significant, and that ")" is
# the Unicode character \u0029
if {
[scan $string " (%f ,%f %c" x y last] != 3
|| $last != 0x0029
} then {
error "invalid coordinate string"
}
puts "X=$x, Y=$y"
An interactive session demonstrating the truncation of integer values
determined by size modifiers:
% set tcl_platform(wordSize)
4
% scan 20000000000000000000 %d
2147483647
% scan 20000000000000000000 %ld
9223372036854775807
% scan 20000000000000000000 %lld
20000000000000000000
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | runtime/tcl-8 |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+------------------+
SEE ALSO
format(n), sscanf(3)
KEYWORDS
conversion specifier, parse, scan
NOTES
Source code for open source software components in Oracle Solaris can
be found at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/opensource/solaris-source-
code-downloads.html.
This software was built from source available at
https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tcl-
core8.6.7-src.tar.gz.
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at https://www.tcl.tk/.
Tcl 8.4 scan(1t)