Provided by: tcl9.0-doc_9.0.1+dfsg-1_all 
NAME
Tcl_NewDictObj, Tcl_DictObjPut, Tcl_DictObjGet, Tcl_DictObjRemove, Tcl_DictObjSize, Tcl_DictObjFirst,
Tcl_DictObjNext, Tcl_DictObjDone, Tcl_DictObjPutKeyList, Tcl_DictObjRemoveKeyList - manipulate Tcl values
as dictionaries
SYNOPSIS
#include <tcl.h>
Tcl_Obj *
Tcl_NewDictObj()
int
Tcl_DictObjGet(interp, dictPtr, keyPtr, valuePtrPtr)
int
Tcl_DictObjPut(interp, dictPtr, keyPtr, valuePtr)
int
Tcl_DictObjRemove(interp, dictPtr, keyPtr)
int
Tcl_DictObjSize(interp, dictPtr, sizePtr)
int
Tcl_DictObjFirst(interp, dictPtr, searchPtr,
keyPtrPtr, valuePtrPtr, donePtr)
Tcl_DictObjNext(searchPtr, keyPtrPtr, valuePtrPtr, donePtr)
Tcl_DictObjDone(searchPtr)
int
Tcl_DictObjPutKeyList(interp, dictPtr, keyc, keyv, valuePtr)
int
Tcl_DictObjRemoveKeyList(interp, dictPtr, keyc, keyv)
ARGUMENTS
Tcl_Interp *interp (in) If an error occurs while converting a value to be a dictionary
value, an error message is left in the interpreter's result
value unless interp is NULL.
Tcl_Obj *dictPtr (in/out) Points to the dictionary value to be manipulated. If dictPtr
does not already point to a dictionary value, an attempt will
be made to convert it to one.
Tcl_Obj *keyPtr (in) Points to the key for the key/value pair being manipulated
within the dictionary value.
Tcl_Obj **keyPtrPtr (out) Points to a variable that will have the key from a key/value
pair placed within it. May be NULL to indicate that the
caller is not interested in the key.
Tcl_Obj *valuePtr (in) Points to the value for the key/value pair being manipulated
within the dictionary value (or sub-value, in the case of
Tcl_DictObjPutKeyList.)
Tcl_Obj **valuePtrPtr (out) Points to a variable that will have the value from a key/value
pair placed within it. For Tcl_DictObjFirst and
Tcl_DictObjNext, this may be NULL to indicate that the caller
is not interested in the value.
Tcl_Size | int *sizePtr (out) Points to a variable that will have the number of key/value
pairs contained within the dictionary placed within it. May
be (Tcl_Size *)NULL when not used. If it points to a variable
which type is not Tcl_Size, a compiler warning will be
generated. If your extensions is compiled with -DTCL_8_API,
this function will return NULL for dictionaries larger than
INT_MAX (which should trigger proper error-handling),
otherwise expect it to crash.
Tcl_DictSearch *searchPtr (in/out) Pointer to record to use to keep track of progress in
enumerating all key/value pairs in a dictionary. The contents
of the record will be initialized by the call to
Tcl_DictObjFirst. If the enumerating is to be terminated
before all values in the dictionary have been returned, the
search record must be passed to Tcl_DictObjDone to enable the
internal locks to be released.
int *donePtr (out) Points to a variable that will have a non-zero value written
into it when the enumeration of the key/value pairs in a
dictionary has completed, and a zero otherwise.
Tcl_Size keyc (in) Indicates the number of keys that will be supplied in the keyv
array.
Tcl_Obj *const *keyv (in) Array of keyc pointers to values that Tcl_DictObjPutKeyList
and Tcl_DictObjRemoveKeyList will use to locate the key/value
pair to manipulate within the sub-dictionaries of the main
dictionary value passed to them.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DESCRIPTION
Tcl dictionary values have an internal representation that supports efficient mapping from keys to values
and which guarantees that the particular ordering of keys within the dictionary remains the same modulo
any keys being deleted (which removes them from the order) or added (which adds them to the end of the
order). If reinterpreted as a list, the values at the even-valued indices in the list will be the keys of
the dictionary, and each will be followed (in the odd-valued index) by the value associated with that
key.
The procedures described in this man page are used to create, modify, index, and iterate over dictionary
values from C code.
Tcl_NewDictObj creates a new, empty dictionary value. The string representation of the value will be
invalid, and the reference count of the value will be zero.
Tcl_DictObjGet looks up the given key within the given dictionary and writes a pointer to the value
associated with that key into the variable pointed to by valuePtrPtr, or a NULL if the key has no mapping
within the dictionary. The result of this procedure is TCL_OK, or TCL_ERROR if the dictPtr cannot be
converted to a dictionary.
Tcl_DictObjPut updates the given dictionary so that the given key maps to the given value; any key may
exist at most once in any particular dictionary. The dictionary must not be shared, but the key and
value may be. This procedure may increase the reference count of both key and value if it proves
necessary to store them. Neither key nor value should be NULL. The result of this procedure is TCL_OK,
or TCL_ERROR if the dictPtr cannot be converted to a dictionary.
Tcl_DictObjRemove updates the given dictionary so that the given key has no mapping to any value. The
dictionary must not be shared, but the key may be. The key actually stored in the dictionary will have
its reference count decremented if it was present. It is not an error if the key did not previously
exist. The result of this procedure is TCL_OK, or TCL_ERROR if the dictPtr cannot be converted to a
dictionary.
Tcl_DictObjSize updates the given variable with the number of key/value pairs currently in the given
dictionary. The result of this procedure is TCL_OK, or TCL_ERROR if the dictPtr cannot be converted to a
dictionary or if sizePtr points to a variable of type int and the dict contains more than 2**31 key/value
pairs.
Tcl_DictObjFirst commences an iteration across all the key/value pairs in the given dictionary, placing
the key and value in the variables pointed to by the keyPtrPtr and valuePtrPtr arguments (which may be
NULL to indicate that the caller is uninterested in they key or variable respectively.) The next
key/value pair in the dictionary may be retrieved with Tcl_DictObjNext. Concurrent updates of the
dictionary's internal representation will not modify the iteration processing unless the dictionary is
unshared, when this will trigger premature termination of the iteration instead (which Tcl scripts cannot
trigger via the dict command.) The searchPtr argument points to a piece of context that is used to
identify which particular iteration is being performed, and is initialized by the call to
Tcl_DictObjFirst. The donePtr argument points to a variable that is updated to be zero of there are
further key/value pairs to be iterated over, or non-zero if the iteration is complete. The order of
iteration is implementation-defined. If the dictPtr argument cannot be converted to a dictionary,
Tcl_DictObjFirst returns TCL_ERROR and the iteration is not commenced, and otherwise it returns TCL_OK.
When Tcl_DictObjFirst is called upon a dictionary, a lock is placed on the dictionary to enable that
dictionary to be iterated over safely without regard for whether the dictionary is modified during the
iteration. Because of this, once the iteration over a dictionary's keys has finished (whether because all
values have been iterated over as indicated by the variable indicated by the donePtr argument being set
to one, or because no further values are required) the Tcl_DictObjDone function must be called with the
same searchPtr as was passed to Tcl_DictObjFirst so that the internal locks can be released. Once a
particular searchPtr is passed to Tcl_DictObjDone, passing it to Tcl_DictObjNext (without first
initializing it with Tcl_DictObjFirst) will result in no values being produced and the variable pointed
to by donePtr being set to one. It is safe to call Tcl_DictObjDone multiple times on the same searchPtr
for each call to Tcl_DictObjFirst.
The procedures Tcl_DictObjPutKeyList and Tcl_DictObjRemoveKeyList are the close analogues of
Tcl_DictObjPut and Tcl_DictObjRemove respectively, except that instead of working with a single
dictionary, they are designed to operate on a nested tree of dictionaries, with inner dictionaries stored
as values inside outer dictionaries. The keyc and keyv arguments specify a list of keys (with outermost
keys first) that acts as a path to the key/value pair to be affected. Note that there is no
corresponding operation for reading a value for a path as this is easy to construct from repeated use of
Tcl_DictObjGet. With Tcl_DictObjPutKeyList, nested dictionaries are created for non-terminal keys where
they do not already exist. With Tcl_DictObjRemoveKeyList, all non-terminal keys must exist and have
dictionaries as their values.
REFERENCE COUNT MANAGEMENT
Tcl_NewDictObj always returns a zero-reference object, much like Tcl_NewObj.
Tcl_DictObjPut does not modify the reference count of its dictPtr argument, but does require that the
object be unshared. If Tcl_DictObjPut returns TCL_ERROR it does not manipulate any reference counts; but
if it returns TCL_OK then it definitely increments the reference count of valuePtr and may increment the
reference count of keyPtr; the latter case happens exactly when the key did not previously exist in the
dictionary. Note however that this function may set the interpreter result; if that is the only place
that is holding a reference to an object, it will be deleted.
Tcl_DictObjGet only reads from its dictPtr and keyPtr arguments, and does not manipulate their reference
counts at all. If the valuePtrPtr argument is not set to NULL (and the function doesn't return
TCL_ERROR), it will be set to a value with a reference count of at least 1, with a reference owned by the
dictionary. Note however that this function may set the interpreter result; if that is the only place
that is holding a reference to an object, it will be deleted.
Tcl_DictObjRemove does not modify the reference count of its dictPtr argument, but does require that the
object be unshared. It does not manipulate the reference count of its keyPtr argument at all. Note
however that this function may set the interpreter result; if that is the only place that is holding a
reference to an object, it will be deleted.
Tcl_DictObjSize does not modify the reference count of its dictPtr argument; it only reads. Note however
that this function may set the interpreter result; if that is the only place that is holding a reference
to the dictionary object, it will be deleted.
Tcl_DictObjFirst does not modify the reference count of its dictPtr argument; it only reads. The
variables given by the keyPtrPtr and valuePtrPtr arguments (if not NULL) will be updated to contain
references to the relevant values in the dictionary; their reference counts will be at least 1 (due to
the dictionary holding a reference to them). It may also manipulate internal references; these are not
exposed to user code, but require a matching Tcl_DictObjDone call. Note however that this function may
set the interpreter result; if that is the only place that is holding a reference to the dictionary
object, it will be deleted.
Similarly for Tcl_DictObjNext; the variables given by the keyPtrPtr and valuePtrPtr arguments (if not
NULL) will be updated to contain references to the relevant values in the dictionary; their reference
counts will be at least 1 (due to the dictionary holding a reference to them).
Tcl_DictObjDone does not manipulate (user-visible) reference counts.
Tcl_DictObjPutKeyList is similar to Tcl_DictObjPut; it does not modify the reference count of its dictPtr
argument, but does require that the object be unshared. It may increment the reference count of any value
passed in the keyv argument, and will increment the reference count of the valuePtr argument on success.
It is recommended that values passed via keyv and valuePtr do not have zero reference counts. Note
however that this function may set the interpreter result; if that is the only place that is holding a
reference to an object, it will be deleted.
Tcl_DictObjRemoveKeyList is similar to Tcl_DictObjRemove; it does not modify the reference count of its
dictPtr argument, but does require that the object be unshared, and does not modify the reference counts
of any of the values passed in the keyv argument. Note however that this function may set the
interpreter result; if that is the only place that is holding a reference to an object, it will be
deleted.
EXAMPLE
Using the dictionary iteration interface to search determine if there is a key that maps to itself:
Tcl_DictSearch search;
Tcl_Obj *key, *value;
int done;
/*
* Assume interp and objPtr are parameters. This is the
* idiomatic way to start an iteration over the dictionary; it
* sets a lock on the internal representation that ensures that
* there are no concurrent modification issues when normal
* reference count management is also used. The lock is
* released automatically when the loop is finished, but must
* be released manually when an exceptional exit from the loop
* is performed. However it is safe to try to release the lock
* even if we've finished iterating over the loop.
*/
if (Tcl_DictObjFirst(interp, objPtr, &search,
&key, &value, &done) != TCL_OK) {
return TCL_ERROR;
}
for (; !done ; Tcl_DictObjNext(&search, &key, &value, &done)) {
/*
* Note that strcmp() is not a good way of comparing
* values and is just used here for demonstration
* purposes.
*/
if (!strcmp(Tcl_GetString(key), Tcl_GetString(value))) {
break;
}
}
Tcl_DictObjDone(&search);
Tcl_SetObjResult(interp, Tcl_NewBooleanObj(!done));
return TCL_OK;
SEE ALSO
Tcl_NewObj, Tcl_DecrRefCount, Tcl_IncrRefCount, Tcl_InitObjHashTable
KEYWORDS
dict, dict value, dictionary, dictionary value, hash table, iteration, value
Tcl 8.5 Tcl_DictObj(3tcl)