case(3Tcl)

NAME
     case - Evaluate one of several scripts, depending on a given value

SYNOPSIS
     case string ?in? patList body ?patList body ...?
     case string ?in? {patList body ?patList body ...?}


DESCRIPTION
     Note: the case command is obsolete and is supported only for backward
     compatibility.  At some point in the future it may be removed entirely.
     You should use the switch command instead.

     The case command matches string against each of the patList arguments in
     order.  Each patList argument is a list of one or more patterns.  If any
     of these patterns matches string then case evaluates the following body
     argument by passing it recursively to the Tcl interpreter and returns the
     result of that evaluation.  Each patList argument consists of a single
     pattern or list of patterns.  Each pattern may contain any of the wild-
     cards described under string match.  If a patList argument is default,
     the corresponding body will be evaluated if no patList matches string.
     If no patList argument matches string and no default is given, then the
     case command returns an empty string.

     Two syntaxes are provided for the patList and body arguments.  The first
     uses a separate argument for each of the patterns and commands; this form
     is convenient if substitutions are desired on some of the patterns or
     commands.  The second form places all of the patterns and commands
     together into a single argument; the argument must have proper list
     structure, with the elements of the list being the patterns and commands.
     The second form makes it easy to construct multi-line case commands,
     since the braces around the whole list make it unnecessary to include a
     backslash at the end of each line.  Since the patList arguments are in
     braces in the second form, no command or variable substitutions are
     performed on them;  this makes the behavior of the second form different
     than the first form in some cases.


KEYWORDS
     case, match, regular expression