lsearch(n)						       Tcl Built-In Commands							lsearch(n)

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NAME

       lsearch - See if a list contains a particular element

SYNOPSIS

       lsearch ?options? list pattern
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DESCRIPTION

       This command searches the elements of list to see if one of them matches pattern.  If so, the command returns the index of the first match-
       ing element (unless the options -all or -inline are specified.)	If not, the command returns -1.  The option arguments  indicates  how  the
       elements of the list are to be matched against pattern and must have one of the values below:

   MATCHING STYLE OPTIONS
       If  all	matching  style  options are omitted, the default matching style is -glob.  If more than one matching style is specified, the last
       matching style given takes precedence.

       -exact Pattern is a literal string that is compared for exact equality against each list element.

       -glob  Pattern is a glob-style pattern which is matched against each list element using the same rules as the string match command.

       -regexp
	      Pattern is treated as a regular expression and matched against each list element using the rules described in the  re_syntax  refer-
	      ence page.

       -sorted
	      The list elements are in sorted order.  If this option is specified, lsearch will use a more efficient searching algorithm to search
	      list.  If no other options are specified, list is assumed to be sorted in increasing order, and  to  contain  ASCII  strings.   This
	      option is mutually exclusive with -glob and -regexp, and is treated exactly like -exact when either -all or -not are specified.

   GENERAL MODIFIER OPTIONS
       These options may be given with all matching styles.

       -all   Changes  the  result to be the list of all matching indices (or all matching values if -inline is specified as well.) If indices are
	      returned, the indices will be in numeric order. If values are returned, the order of the values will be the order  of  those  values
	      within the input list.

       -inline
	      The  matching  value is returned instead of its index (or an empty string if no value matches.)  If -all is also specified, then the
	      result of the command is the list of all values that matched.

       -not   This negates the sense of the match, returning the index of the first non-matching value in the list.

       -start index
	      The list is searched starting at position index.	The interpretation of the index value is the same as for the command string index, |
	      supporting simple index arithmetic and indices relative to the end of the list.

   CONTENTS DESCRIPTION OPTIONS
       These  options  describe  how  to  interpret  the items in the list being searched.  They are only meaningful when used with the -exact and
       -sorted options.  If more than one is specified, the last one takes precedence.	The default is -ascii.

       -ascii The list elements are to be examined as Unicode strings (the name is for backward-compatibility reasons.)

       -dictionary
	      The list elements are to be compared using dictionary-style comparisons (see lsort for a fuller description). Note  that	this  only
	      makes a meaningful difference from the -ascii option when the -sorted option is given, because values are only dictionary-equal when
	      exactly equal.

       -integer
	      The list elements are to be compared as integers. 										   |

       -nocase																	   |
	      Causes comparisons to be handled in a case-insensitive manner.  Has no effect if combined with the -dictionary, -integer,  or  -real |
	      options.

       -real  The list elements are to be compared as floating-point values.

   SORTED LIST OPTIONS
       These  options  (only  meaningful  with	the -sorted option) specify how the list is sorted.  If more than one is given, the last one takes
       precedence.  The default option is -increasing.

       -decreasing
	      The list elements are sorted in decreasing order.  This option is only meaningful when used with -sorted.

       -increasing
	      The list elements are sorted in increasing order.  This option is only meaningful when used with -sorted.

   NESTED LIST OPTIONS
       These options are used to search lists of lists.  They may be used with any other options.						   |

       -index indexList 															   |
	      This option is designed for use when searching within nested lists.  The indexList argument gives a path of indices (much  as  might |
	      be used with the lindex or lset commands) within each element to allow the location of the term being matched against.		   |

       -subindices																   |
	      If  this	option is given, the index result from this command (or every index result when -all is also specified) will be a complete |
	      path (suitable for use with lindex or lset) within the overall list to the term found.  This option has no effect unless the  -index |
	      is also specified, and is just a convenience short-cut.

EXAMPLES

       Basic searching:
	      lsearch {a b c d e} c
		    -> 2
	      lsearch -all {a b c a b c} c
		    -> 2 5

       Using lsearch to filter lists:
	      lsearch -inline {a20 b35 c47} b*
		    -> b35
	      lsearch -inline -not {a20 b35 c47} b*
		    -> a20
	      lsearch -all -inline -not {a20 b35 c47} b*
		    -> a20 c47
	      lsearch -all -not {a20 b35 c47} b*
		    -> 0 2

       This can even do a "set-like" removal operation:
	      lsearch -all -inline -not -exact {a b c a d e a f g a} a
		    -> b c d e f g

       Searching may start part-way through the list:
	      lsearch -start 3 {a b c a b c} c
		    -> 5

       It is also possible to search inside elements:
	      lsearch -index 1 -all -inline {{a abc} {b bcd} {c cde}} *bc*
		    -> {a abc} {b bcd}

SEE ALSO

       foreach(n), list(n), lappend(n), lindex(n), linsert(n), llength(n), lset(n), lsort(n), lrange(n), lreplace(n), string(n) 		   |

KEYWORDS

       list, match, pattern, regular expression, search, string

Tcl									8.5								lsearch(n)