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

       ::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
              printable chars in the input string. A line is a set of chars
              between the beginning of the string and a newline, or between 2
              newlines, 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
              properly 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
              separated 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
              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::readPatterns.

              -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
                     integer.  integer must be a positive integer value.
                     Defaults 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
              hyphenation 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
              ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined are legal arguments for this
              command.

       ::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
              properly 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
              completely empty lines. They and empty lines are also ignored
              when computing the prefix to remove.

              Together with ::textutil::adjust it is possible to create
              properly wrapped paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.

       ::textutil::splitn string ?len?
              This command splits the given string into chunks of len
              characters 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
              according 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
              additional 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
              tabstops every num columns. Only sequences of space characters
              containing 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
              substring 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
              beginning 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
              newline, 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::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
              newline, 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
              substring 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
              substring 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
              single 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
              implementation 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.

       ::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
              modified 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://sourceforge.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



textutil                             0.7.1                         textutil(n)
