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LSEARCH(3)            DragonFly Library Functions Manual            LSEARCH(3)

NAME

lsearch, lfind -- linear search and append

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <search.h> void * lsearch(const void *key, void *base, size_t *nelp, size_t width, int (*compar)(const void *, const void *)); void * lfind(const void *key, const void *base, size_t *nelp, size_t width, int (*compar)(const void *, const void *));

DESCRIPTION

The lsearch() and lfind() functions walk linearly through an array and compare each element with the one to be sought using a supplied comparison function. The key argument points to an element that matches the one that is searched. The array's address in memory is denoted by the base argument. The width of one element (i.e., the size as returned by sizeof()) is passed as the width argument. The number of valid elements contained in the array (not the number of elements the array has space reserved for) is given in the integer pointed to by nelp. The compar argument points to a function which compares its two arguments and returns zero if they are matching, and non-zero otherwise. If no matching element was found in the array, lsearch() copies key into the position after the last element and increments the integer pointed to by nelp.

RETURN VALUES

The lsearch() and lfind() functions return a pointer to the first element found. If no element was found, lsearch() returns a pointer to the newly added element, whereas lfind() returns NULL. Both functions return NULL if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO

bsearch(3), hsearch(3), tsearch(3)

STANDARDS

The lsearch() and lfind() functions conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (``POSIX.1'').

HISTORY

The lsearch() and lfind() functions appeared in 4.2BSD. In DragonFly 1.13 they reappeared conforming to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (``POSIX.1''). DragonFly 3.7 May 18, 2008 DragonFly 3.7 lsearch(n) Tcl Built-In Commands lsearch(n) ______________________________________________________________________________

NAME

lsearch - See if a list contains a particular element

SYNOPSIS

lsearch ?options? list pattern ______________________________________________________________________________

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 matching element (unless the options -all or -inline are specified.) If not, the command returns -1 or (if options -all or -inline are specified) the empty string. 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 reference 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. -bisect Inexact search when the list elements are in sorted order. For | an increasing list the last index where the element is less than | or equal to the pattern is returned. For a decreasing list the | last index where the element is greater than or equal to the | pattern is returned. If the pattern is before the first element | or the list is empty, -1 is returned. This option implies | -sorted and cannot be used with either -all or -not. 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

binary search, linear search, list, match, pattern, regular expression, search, string Tcl 8.6 lsearch(n)

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