


textutil(n)Text and string utilities, macro processingtextutil(n)


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NAME
       textutil - Procedures to manipulate texts and strings.

SYNOPSIS
       package require Tcl  8.2

       package require textutil  ?0.7.1?

       ::textutil::adjust string args

       ::textutil::adjust::readPatterns filename

       ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined

       ::textutil::adjust::getPredefined filename

       ::textutil::indent string prefix ?skip?

       ::textutil::undent string

       ::textutil::splitn string ?len?

       ::textutil::splitx string ?regexp?

       ::textutil::tabify string ?num?

       ::textutil::tabify2 string ?num?

       ::textutil::trim string ?regexp?

       ::textutil::trimleft string ?regexp?

       ::textutil::trimright string ?regexp?

       ::textutil::trimPrefix string prefix

       ::textutil::trimEmptyHeading string

       ::textutil::untabify string ?num?

       ::textutil::untabify2 string ?num?

       ::textutil::strRepeat text num

       ::textutil::blank num

       ::textutil::chop string

       ::textutil::tail string

       ::textutil::cap string




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textutil(n)Text and string utilities, macro processingtextutil(n)


       ::textutil::uncap string

       ::textutil::longestCommonPrefixList list

       ::textutil::longestCommonPrefix ?string...?

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DESCRIPTION
       The package textutil provides commands that manipulate strings or texts
       (a.k.a. long strings or string with embedded newlines  or  paragraphs).
       It is actually a bundle providing the commands of the six packages

       textutil::adjust

       textutil::repeat

       textutil::split

       textutil::string

       textutil::tabify

       textutil::trim

       in the namespace textutil.

       The bundle is deprecated, and it will be removed in a future release of
       Tcllib, after the next release. It is recommended to use  the  relevant
       sub  packages instead for whatever functionality is needed by the using
       package or application.

       The complete set of procedures is described below.

       ::textutil::adjust string args
              Do a justification on the string according to args.  The  string
              is  taken as one big paragraph, ignoring any newlines.  Then the
              line is formatted according to the options used, and the command
              return  a new string with enough lines to contain all the print-
              able chars in the input string. A line is a set of chars between
              the  beginning  of  the  string and a newline, or between 2 new-
              lines, or between a newline and the end of the  string.  If  the
              input  string is small enough, the returned string won't contain
              any newlines.

              Together with ::textutil::indent it is possible to create  prop-
              erly wrapped paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.

              By  default,  any  occurrence of spaces characters or tabulation
              are replaced by a single space so each word in a line  is  sepa-
              rated  from  the  next  one  by exactly one space char, and this
              forms a real line. Each real line is placed in a  logical  line,
              which  have  exactly  a given length (see -length option below).
              The real line may have a lesser length. Again  by  default,  any



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textutil(n)Text and string utilities, macro processingtextutil(n)


              trailing  spaces  are  ignored  before returning the string (see
              -full option below). The following options may be used after the
              string  parameter,  and  change the way the command place a real
              line in a logical line.

              -full boolean
                     If set to false, any trailing  space  chars  are  deleted
                     before returning the string. If set to true, any trailing
                     space chars are left in the string. Default to false.

              -hyphenate boolean
                     if set to false, no hyphenation will be done. If  set  to
                     true,  the last word of a line is tried to be hyphenated.
                     Defaults to false. Note:  hyphenation  patterns  must  be
                     loaded prior, using the command ::textutil::adjust::read-
                     Patterns.

              -justify center|left|plain|right
                     Set the justification of the returned string  to  center,
                     left, plain or right. By default, it is set to left.  The
                     justification means that any line in the returned  string
                     but  the last one is build according to the value. If the
                     justification is set to plain and the number of printable
                     chars  in the last line is less than 90% of the length of
                     a line (see -length), then this line  is  justified  with
                     the  left value, avoiding the expansion of this line when
                     it is too small. The meaning of each value is:

                      center The real line is centered in the logical line. If
                             needed,  a  set  of space characters are added at
                             the beginning (half of the needed set) and at the
                             end  (half  of  the  needed  set)  of the line if
                             required (see the option -full).

                      left   The real line is set on the left of  the  logical
                             line.  It  means that there are no space chars at
                             the beginning of  this  line.  If  required,  all
                             needed  space  chars  are added at the end of the
                             line (see the option -full).

                      plain  The real line is exactly set in the logical line.
                             It  means  that  there are no leading or trailing
                             space chars. All the needed space chars are added
                             in the real line, between 2 (or more) words.

                      right  The  real line is set on the right of the logical
                             line. It means that there are no space  chars  at
                             the end of this line, and there may be some space
                             chars at the  beginning,  despite  of  the  -full
                             option.

              -length integer
                     Set the length of the logical line in the string to inte-
                     ger.  integer must be a positive integer value.  Defaults



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textutil(n)Text and string utilities, macro processingtextutil(n)


                     to 72.

              -strictlength boolean
                     If  set to false, a line can exceed the specified -length
                     if a single word is longer than -length. If set to  true,
                     words  that  are longer than -length are split so that no
                     line exceeds the specified -length. Defaults to false.

       ::textutil::adjust::readPatterns filename
              Loads the internal storage for  hyphenation  patterns  with  the
              contents  of  the  file  filename.  This has to be done prior to
              calling command ::textutil::adjust with  "-hyphenate  true",  or
              the hyphenation process will not work correctly.

              The package comes with a number of predefined pattern files, and
              the command ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined can  be  used  to
              find out their names.

       ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined
              This  command returns a list containing the names of the hyphen-
              ation files coming with this package.

       ::textutil::adjust::getPredefined filename
              Use this command to query the package for the full path name  of
              the  hyphenation file filename coming with the package. Only the
              filenames   found   in   the   list   returned    by    ::textu-
              til::adjust::listPredefined  are  legal  arguments for this com-
              mand.

       ::textutil::indent string prefix ?skip?
              Each line in the string indented by adding the string prefix  at
              its  beginning. The modified string is returned as the result of
              the command.

              If skip is specified the first skip lines  are  left  untouched.
              The  default  for  skip  is  0,  causing the modification of all
              lines. Negative values for skip are treated  like  0.  In  other
              words, skip > 0 creates a hanging indentation.

              Together  with ::textutil::adjust it is possible to create prop-
              erly wrapped paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.

       ::textutil::undent string
              The command computes the common prefix for all lines  in  string
              consisting solely out of whitespace, removes this from each line
              and returns the modified string.

              Lines containing only whitespace  are  always  reduced  to  com-
              pletely  empty lines. They and empty lines are also ignored when
              computing the prefix to remove.

              Together with ::textutil::adjust it is possible to create  prop-
              erly wrapped paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.




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textutil(n)Text and string utilities, macro processingtextutil(n)


       ::textutil::splitn string ?len?
              This  command splits the given string into chunks of len charac-
              ters and returns a list containing these  chunks.  The  argument
              len defaults to 1 if none is specified. A negative length is not
              allowed and will cause the command to throw an error.  Providing
              an  empty  string  as  input  is  allowed, the command will then
              return an empty list. If the length of  the  string  is  not  an
              entire  multiple of the chunk length, then the last chunk in the
              generated list will be shorter than len.

       ::textutil::splitx string ?regexp?
              Split the string and return a list. The string is split  accord-
              ing to the regular expression regexp instead of a simple list of
              chars. Note that if you add parenthesis  into  the  regexp,  the
              parentheses  part of separator would be added into list as addi-
              tional element. If the string is empty the result is  the  empty
              list,  like for split. If regexp is empty the string is split at
              every character, like split does.  The regular expression regexp
              defaults to "[\\t \\r\\n]+".

       ::textutil::tabify string ?num?
              Tabify  the string by replacing any substring of num space chars
              by a tabulation and return the  result  as  a  new  string.  num
              defaults to 8.

       ::textutil::tabify2 string ?num?
              Similar  to  ::textutil::tabify this command tabifies the string
              and returns the result as a new string. A different algorithm is
              used  however.  Instead of replacing any substring of num spaces
              this command works more like an editor. num defaults to 8.

              Each line of the text in string is treated as if there are  tab-
              stops every num columns. Only sequences of space characters con-
              taining more than one  space  character  and  found  immediately
              before a tabstop are replaced with tabs.

       ::textutil::trim string ?regexp?
              Remove in string any leading and trailing substring according to
              the regular expression regexp and return the  result  as  a  new
              string.   This apply on any line in the string, that is any sub-
              string between 2 newline chars, or between the beginning of  the
              string  and  a  newline, or between a newline and the end of the
              string, or, if the string contain no newline, between the begin-
              ning  and  the end of the string.  The regular expression regexp
              defaults to "[ \\t]+".

       ::textutil::trimleft string ?regexp?
              Remove in string any leading substring according to the  regular
              expression  regexp  and  return the result as a new string. This
              apply on any line in the string, that is any substring between 2
              newline chars, or between the beginning of the string and a new-
              line, or between a newline and the end of the string, or, if the
              string  contain no newline, between the beginning and the end of
              the string.   The  regular  expression  regexp  defaults  to  "[



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textutil(n)Text and string utilities, macro processingtextutil(n)


              \\t]+".

       ::textutil::trimright string ?regexp?
              Remove in string any trailing substring according to the regular
              expression regexp and return the result as a  new  string.  This
              apply on any line in the string, that is any substring between 2
              newline chars, or between the beginning of the string and a new-
              line, or between a newline and the end of the string, or, if the
              string contain no newline, between the beginning and the end  of
              the  string.   The  regular  expression  regexp  defaults  to "[
              \\t]+".

       ::textutil::trimPrefix string prefix
              Removes the prefix from the beginning of string and returns  the
              result.  The  string is left unchanged if it doesn't have prefix
              at its beginning.

       ::textutil::trimEmptyHeading string
              Looks for  empty  lines  (including  lines  consisting  of  only
              whitespace)  at  the beginning of the string and removes it. The
              modified string is returned as the result of the command.

       ::textutil::untabify string ?num?
              Untabify the string by replacing any tabulation char by  a  sub-
              string of num space chars and return the result as a new string.
              num defaults to 8.

       ::textutil::untabify2 string ?num?
              Untabify the string by replacing any tabulation char by  a  sub-
              string of at most num space chars and return the result as a new
              string. Unlike textutil::untabify each tab is not replaced by  a
              fixed  number  of  space  characters.  The command overlays each
              line in the string with tabstops every num columns  instead  and
              replaces  tabs  with  just  enough space characters to reach the
              next tabstop. This is the complement of  the  actions  taken  by
              ::textutil::tabify2. num defaults to 8.

              There is one asymmetry though: A tab can be replaced with a sin-
              gle space, but not the other way around.

       ::textutil::strRepeat text num
              The implementation depends on the core  executing  the  package.
              Used  string  repeat if it is present, or a fast tcl implementa-
              tion if it is not. Returns a string containing the text repeated
              num times. The repetitions are joined without characters between
              them. A value of num <= 0 causes the command to return an  empty
              string.

       ::textutil::blank num
              A convenience command. Returns a string of num spaces.

       ::textutil::chop string
              A  convenience command. Removes the last character of string and
              returns the shortened string.



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textutil(n)Text and string utilities, macro processingtextutil(n)


       ::textutil::tail string
              A convenience command. Removes the first character of string and
              returns the shortened string.

       ::textutil::cap string
              Capitalizes  the first character of string and returns the modi-
              fied string.

       ::textutil::uncap string
              The complementary operation to ::textutil::cap. Forces the first
              character  of  string  to  lower  case  and returns the modified
              string.

       ::textutil::longestCommonPrefixList list

       ::textutil::longestCommonPrefix ?string...?
              Computes the longest common prefix for either the strings  given
              to the command, or the strings specified in the single list, and
              returns it as the result of the command.

              If no strings were specified the result is the empty string.  If
              only one string was specified, the string itself is returned, as
              it is its own longest common prefix.


BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK
       This document, and the package it describes, will  undoubtedly  contain
       bugs  and  other problems.  Please report such in the category textutil
       of       the       Tcllib       SF       Trackers       [http://source-
       forge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883].   Please  also report any ideas for
       enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.

SEE ALSO
       regexp(n), split(n), string(n)

KEYWORDS
       TeX, formatting, hyphenation, indenting, paragraph, regular expression,
       string, trimming

CATEGORY
       Text processing
















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