For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training. We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.
Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!
I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here)) |
How to check that a string contains a number in Tcl
In Tcl, all variables hold strings. If you perform an arithmetic operation such as an expr, an incr or a numeric comparision, the incoming strings are converted into a numbers internally, the calculations are done, and the results are converted back to strings and saved. It might not sound very efficient, but it's nice and simple and it works very well for most scripting requirements.
But what happens if you try to run an arithmetic operation on a string that doesn't contain a numeric value? You get an error ... and if you've not programmed to allow for it, that means a number of lines of Tcl error flags that will confuse and worry the non-programmer. What can you do about this?
First option - you can use the catch command. With catch, you'll attempt to perform the Tcl operation, and if it fails you'll get a false (0) result returned by the catch command to tell you that there's been an error, instead of simply having the program crash. This allows you to do your own error handling and (where appropriate) recovery.
See: Example of catch
Second option - you can check your incoming strings using the string is command that was added at version 8.1 of Tcl so should be on all your systems by now!
For example:
string is integer -strict $abcd
will return a true value if the variable $abcd contains (strictly) an integer, and false otherwise. (without the strict option things like leading and trailing white space will be allowed)
The integer keyword is known as a class - there are about a dozen possibilities including double for a floating point number and boolean to test for any valid Tcl boolean string such as 0, false, 1, true. (written 2005-08-06, updated 2011-03-01)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles T205 - Tcl/Tk - String Handling in Tcl [779] The fragility of pancakes - and better structures - (2006-06-26) [943] Matching within multiline strings, and ignoring case in regular expressions - (2006-11-25) [1403] Square Bracket protection in Tcl - (2007-10-23) [1410] Tcl / regsub - changing a string and using interesting bits - (2007-10-27) [1601] Replacing the last comma with an and - (2008-04-04) [2472] split and join in tcl and expect - (2009-10-23) [3192] Tcl - Some example of HOW TO in handling data files and formats - (2011-03-04) [3285] Extracting data from a string / line from file - Tcl - (2011-05-10) [3576] Tcl - apparently odd behaviour of string trimleft - (2012-01-13) [4205] Regular Expression Substitution - Tcl - (2013-11-12) [4454] Everything is a string - even a list - (2015-03-11) [4455] Working out distance between places, using OS grid references and a program in Tcl - (2015-03-11)
Some other Articles
Can an older person learn a programming languageTheft of training materialAssignment, equality and identity in PHPHorse's Mouth is a year oldHow to check that a string contains a number in TclFull circle - made it back to an old hauntNetlessWhat is an SQL injection attack?New in the shopssimplicity hides real size
|
4759 posts, page by page
Link to page ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 at 50 posts per page
This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at
http://www.wellho.net/horse/ -
the diary and writings of Graham Ellis.
Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the
page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software
releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via
our main site for current courses,
prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth"
cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.
Link to Ezine home page (for reading).
Link to Blogging home page (to add comments).
|
|