Version 119 of array

Updated 2013-09-16 16:33:00 by pooryorick

[array] manipulates Tcl's array variables, which can also be manipulated using array(key) syntax.

Synopsis

array anymore arrayName searchId

array donesearch arrayName searchId

array exists arrayName

array get arrayName ?pattern?

array names arrayName ?mode? ?pattern?

array nextelement arrayName searchId

array set arrayName list

array size arrayName

array startsearch arrayName

array statistics arrayName

array unset arrayName ?pattern?

Documentation

man page

Description

A Tcl array is a special kind of variable which acts as a container for other variables, analogously to the way a directory in a filesystem is a special file which acts as a container for other files. The variables in an array are accessed by name using array variable substitution syntax. An array can be used like a "hash" or "associated array" in other languages, as a data structure that allows one to associate a name with a value value.

Using the two-component $arrayName(varName) syntax, variable substitution can be used to obtain the values of individual variables within in array, but it can not be used on the array itself, because an array is an opaque handle. For this reason, all [array] commands expect the arrayName rather than the array value itself.

A Tcl, the array is really better termed a hash map (ala perl) or perhaps a [use snobol, awk, python, etc. term here - "associative array"].

Array keys are not restricted to just numbers, but can be any string.

Array keys are not ordered. It isn't straight-forward to get values out of a Tcl array in the same order that they were set. Of course, it is possible to get the names and then order them. On the other hand, dict keys are ordered.

traces may be set on either an array container or an individual array variable.

Similar Constructs

vector (BLT)
one-dimensional arrays of values
TclX keyed lists
NAP
has some sort of array/vector data structure.
dictionary
unlike arrays, dictionaries are first-class values rather than handles, and dictionary values are ordered by the sequence in which they were set

See Also

Arrays / hash maps
more details about arrays
A simple database
parray
Arrays as cached functions
Arrays of function pointers
Memory costs with Tcl
for measurement of array/list element consumption in bytes.
Persistent arrays
Procedures stored in arrays
array name string matching extension
GUI for editing a Tcl array
Fitting a new Rear-End to Arrays
foreach
iterating through an array

Creating an Array

To create an array, [[set] a variable within the array using the `arrayName(key)` form:

set balloon(color) red

or use [[array set]:

array set balloon {color red}

To create multiple array keys and values in one operation, use [[array set].

To create an empty array:

array set myArray {}

Array names have the same restrictions as any other Tcl variable.

Array keys can be any string. Leading spaces, punctuation, etc. must all match exactly when using retrieving the value.

When referencing a specific array element, the element portion is considered a part of the name. Thus, if the array name itself requires {} for variable substitution, then the element reference will too.

That is to say:

array unset {this stuff}
set {this stuff(one)} 1
parray {this stuff}

A common beginner mistake is to "over-quote" the key:

#warning, bad code ahead!
% set a("key") value
value
% array get a
{"key"} value

In Tcl, everything is a string. Quoting strings is mostly not necessary - and can even be harmful, as in this example.

Quotes group words when they start with a quote. The "inner quotes" are just kept as part of the value.

In the following example the quoting is redundant:

array set myArray {"element" "value"}

Better syntax would be:

array set myArray {element value} ;# or:
set myArray(element) value

More examples:

unset x                        ; # x doesn't exist at all anymore
unset x ; array set x {}       ; # x exists as an array but has no elements
array unset x                  ; # x doesn't exist at all anymore

foreach idx [array names x] {
   set x($idx) {}
}                              ; # array exists - all the elements still
                                 # exist, but values of each element are now
                                 # empty
array set colors {
    red   #ff0000
    green #00ff00
    blue  #0000ff
}
foreach name [array names colors] {
    puts "$name is $colors($name)"
}

Retrieving the Value of an array key

set value1 $ballon(color)   ; # use a literal key
set value2 $ballon($key) ; # use a key within a variable

Iain B. Findleton 2004-06: asked whether there was easier ways to dereference an array element, given that the name of the array was in a variable and the array key was in a variable. His example was:

eval { set ${key}($item) }

DKF writes, Just remove the eval from the outside (it just confuses things) and it'll be fine:

puts [set ${key}($item)]        ;# Read
set ${key}($item) $val          ;# Write

If you're in a procedure, use [[upvar] to create a local reference to the array so you get something like this:

upvar ${key} v
puts $v($item)
set v($item) $val

It's possible to also do an [[upvar] pointer to an array element, but I don't recommend it (for example, it fails if you decide to set key equal to ::env since env-var management is done via a whole-array trace).

Determine whether a Key Exists

info exists array(key)

See info exists

Unset an Array

unset balloon

[[array unset] provides a way to unset a subset of keys

Incrementing an Array, Creating it if it doesn't Exist

proc incrArrayElement {var key {incr 1}} {
    upvar $var a 
    if {[info exists a($key)]} {
        incr a($key) $incr
    } else {
        set a($key) $incr
    } 
}

Simulating Multiple Dimensions

There are no multi-dimensional arrays in Tcl but they can be simulated by a naming convention:

set a(1,1) 0 ;# set element 1,1 to 0

This works if the keys used do not contain the ',' character. If the keys can be arbitrary strings then one can use the list of the indices as index into the array:

set a([list $i1 $i2 $i3]) 0; # set element (i1,i2,i3) of array a to 0

This is completely unambiguous, but might look a bit uglier than the comma solution. Also remember that

set a([list 1 2 3]) 0

is equivalent to

set {a(1 2 3)} 0

but not to

set a(1 2 3) 0

since the last passes four argument to [[set].

AMG: To implement multidimensional arrays, I often use the convention given above (commas, not [list], but that's a good idea), but it prevents me from easily getting a list of elements in any one dimension. For the following array:

array set data {
    foo,x ecks    foo,y why    foo,z zed
    bar,x ECKS    bar,y WHY    bar,z ZED
}

I'd like some means to get a list {foo bar}. How is this useful? I have written many server programs that use multidimensions arrays to keep track of state for all connected clients. To get a list of all client IDs, I have another variable or special array element listing the client IDs, but I have to always keep it in sync with the rest of the array. I dislike this.

What if multidimensional arrays were accessed using $name(dim1)(dim2)(dim3) syntax? Thanks to a bug, we once had multidimensional arrays, but the syntax was of course very very weird (I think it used [uplevel 0]). This is a bit cleaner-looking. But it has very bad interactions with [array]. How would the following be converted to use [array set]?

set data(foo)(x) ecks; set data(foo)(y) why; set data(foo)(z) zed
set data(bar)(x) ECKS; set data(bar)(y) WHY; set data(bar)(z) ZED

What should [array get data] return?

Lars H: Well, why don't you ask Tcl? :-) It would tell you that after the above commands, [array get data] returns

bar)(z ZED foo)(x ecks bar)(x ECKS foo)(y why bar)(y WHY foo)(z zed

and (as an aid to help overcome one's prejudices about how the above should be interpreted)

join [[array names data]] \n

returns

bar)(z
foo)(x
bar)(x
foo)(y
bar)(y
foo)(z

This is a recurring problem with attempts to extend Tcl syntax: the "new syntaxes" people come up with usually already mean something, even if that "something" looks rather silly.

AMG: in response to Lars: Wow, I didn't realize Tcl would accept such syntax! It turns out that I'm simply using )( as my dimension delimiter.

Alright, now let's think about how to get a list of all elements in a given dimension. This is easiest to do if the array indices are proper lists:

array set data [list                                         \
    [list foo x] ecks    [list foo y] why    [list foo z] zed\
    [list bar x] ECKS    [list bar y] WHY    [list bar z] ZED\
]

proc array_dimnames {array_var dim_index} {
    upvar 1 $array_var array
    set result [list]
    foreach name [lsort -unique -index $dim_index [array names array]] {
        lappend result [lindex $name $dim_index]
    }
    return $result
}

% array_dimnames data 0
bar foo
% array_dimnames data 1
x y z

That works. For other delimiters, each element of [[array names] needs to be [[split] before the list can be passed to [[lsort]. Another job for [[lcomp] I guess.

For really big arrays, such as the enormous MV catchall array used in OpenVerse, I wonder if this costs too much, so much that it's worth it to separately maintain element lists rather than extract that information from the array names.

AMG: Continued from before: [array names data] should return {foo bar}, but $data(foo) wouldn't be valid, breaking old assumptions. Should [set data(foo) dummy] unset data(foo)(*)? And so on.

If array notation could be applied to dicts we'd be in great shape. Doesn't Jim do this?

Lars H: Why don't you just use nested dicts? It seems those will do precisely what you ask for above.

AMG: I can do some things with arrays that I can't do with dicts: namely, traces and upvars and everything else that uses those features. So, I often use arrays when I need to use elements as -textvariables. Perhaps I should be using namespaces instead, preferably wrapped by snit.


LV: Over on comp.lang.tcl, 2007-02, Fredderic provides the following proc in response to someone who was to declare an empty array at the start of a tcl script.

proc declare_array {arrayName} {
    upvar 1 $arrayName array
    catch {unset array}
    array set array {}
} 

The idea here is - catch the unset, in case the variable was not already declared. Then, the array set makes the variable an array, but without any members. That way, a later reference to the name in a non-array setting generates a variable is array error.

Memory Usage

Arrays use more memory than lists. Arrays provide O(1) access due to their hashtable nature, while lists provide O(1) access only for numerical indices.


Thinking about using arrays as sets got me wondering:

escargo 2002-11-11: Thinking about using arrays as sets got me wondering: Assuming the keys are what is important to me, I would want to take up the least amount of storage for the values. So, what's smallest? An integer (or zero specifically)? An empty string? The key itself?

Lars H:

This is a very tricky question (especially since Tcl does not provide much for Introspection into the matter). I had expected that any value (TclObject) which already exists should yield the same result, but it seems to matter:

Bytes allocated   Code
---------------   ----------------
         970752   for {set n 1} {$n<10000} {incr n} {set A($n) [expr 0]}
         729088   set zero [expr 0]; for {set n 1} {$n<10000} {incr n} {set A($n) $zero}
         729088   for {set n 1} {$n<10000} {incr n} {set A($n) 0}
         729088   for {set n 1} {$n<10000} {incr n} {set A($n) {}}
        1130496   for {set n 1} {$n< 10000} {incr n} {set A($n) $n}
         970752   for {set n 1} {$n<10000} {incr n} {set A([format %d $n]) $n}

These measurements were essentially obtained by comparing the vsize (as reported by ps) of tclsh before and after evaluating the above code, hence it is rather crude.

escargo: Those last two seem strange! Why would having the pure string as the name make such a difference in the storage? Makes me wonder what this w'ould be.

???????   for {set n 1} {$n<10000} {incr n} {set A($n) [format %d $n]}

Also, isn't there a fence post error here? Shouldn't the range start with set n 0? Otherwise I see 9999 instances being created, not 10,000.

Lars H: And 10000 instances would be more natural than 9999 for what reason? We'r e just trying to see what's best, and aren't particularly concerned with how good the best are.

As for that mysterious result when the key was used as value, I'm just as surprised as you are. But try it yourself. The code used for obtaining the measurements can be found on Measuring memory usage. I also set up Compact data storage for discussing matters of this kind.

escargo 2002-11-22: I would think that 10000 would be more natural than 9999 just in terms of thinking about averages. I would rather mentally try to divide a number by 10000 than worry about dividing by 9999.

Michael Schlenker: Trying to explain whats going on: Tcl arrays do not yet use Tcl_Obj* for the array keys (some code for it is in the core but #ifdef'ed out for compatibility reasons) instead they use char* as keys. So 10000 char* are created, with the string reps for 1-10000 for the first 4 examples, but with a larger string rep for the last two examples. Example 1 creates a new Tcl_Obj for every entry, as it cannot easily be shared. Examples 2,3 and 4 create only one Tcl_Obj that is shared. Examples 5 and 6 create one unshared Tcl_Obj for each entry.

MS: Starting from Tcl8.5 arrays keys are Tcl_Obj and not strings; also the measurements above should be much improved in 8.5+

Lars H: I might add that the reason that example 5 is more costly than example 6 is that each of the unshared objects in example 5 have a string representation (generated when the argument A($n) of set is substituted), whereas the unshared objects in example 6 do not (format makes do with the internal representation).

Efficiently Comparing Arrays

escargo 2002-11-19:

What is the most efficient way to compare the contents of two arrays?

If array get had an option to specify the method and order of the results, then a simpler comparison could be done.

In Icon a table can be turned into a list by its sort function, which can return the results in one of four ways:

  1. List of key, value pairs sorted by key.
  2. List of key, value pairs sorted by value.
  3. List of alternating key and value sorted by key.
  4. List of alternating key and value sorted by value.

This puts the table into a known canonical order. There appears to be no way to know that array get would linearize two arrays in the same way.

It makes me wish there was an array compare function that could easily answer the question.

Michael A. Cleverly 2002-11-19: Here's an array compare type proc:

proc array-compare {array1 array2} {
    upvar 1 $array1 foo $array2 bar

    if {![array exists foo]} {
        return -code error "$array1 is not an array"
    }

    if {![array exists bar]} {
        return -code error "$array2 is not an array"
    }

    if {[array size foo] != [array size bar]} {
        return 0
    }

    if {[array size foo] == 0} {
        return 1
    }

    set keys(foo) [lsort [array names foo]]
    set keys(bar) [lsort [array names bar]]
    set keys(keys) $keys(foo)

    if {![string equal $keys(foo) $keys(bar)]} {
        return 0
    }

    foreach key $keys(keys) {
        if {![string equal $foo($key) $bar($key)]} {
            return 0
        }
    }

    return 1
}

Michael Schlenker: If using Tcl 8.4 one can speed this up a bit, by optimizing the lsort:

proc array-compare2 {array1 array2} {
    upvar 1 $array1 foo $array2 bar

    if {![array exists foo]} {
        return -code error "$array1 is not an array"
    }
    if {![array exists bar]} {
        return -code error "$array2 is not an array"
    }
    if {[array size foo] != [array size bar]} {
        return 0
    }
    if {[array size foo] == 0} {
        return 1
    }

    ;# some 8.4 optimization using the lsort -unique feature 
    set keys [lsort -unique [concat [array names foo] [array names bar]]]
    if {[llength $keys] != [array size foo]} {
       return 0
    }

    foreach key $keys {
        if {$foo($key) ne $bar($key)} {
            return 0
        }
    }
    return 1
}

escargo 2002-11-20: So, just to summarize: Arrays are equal iff (if and only if)

  1. They are equal size.
  2. They have the same names.
  3. For all the names the values (associated with each name in each array) are equal.

Is there a significant performance or space penalty for having to call lsort external to array names instead of having array names have a parameter that does the sorting internally?

The performance and space penalty is insignificant if lsort is used as in the above example.

Copying an Array

Lars H: Usually using [array get] and [array set], like so:

array set copy [array get original]

Passing arrays to procedures

See How to pass arrays

Why arrays are handles instead of values

The simple reason is that that's not how they were implemented.

RS: Also, arrays are collections of variables (so: not a value), and have been in Tcl for a long time. Given modern dict and namespace, they might not even have been invented...

RHS: Would it be unreasonable to treat $arrayName the same as [array get $arrayName]? One could shimmer between the array rep and the list (and other) representations by how they are accessed. In that vein, you could do something like:

set bob [list a 1 b 2 c 3]
puts $bob(a)

...and it would shimmer the list to an array. The only "gotcha" I can think of would be that the list order might? change when you modified the variable as an array, but I don't think that would be unreasonable.

I can see namespaces being the preferred method for encapsulation. Still not understanding dict, I don't understand the pros and cons of dicts vs arrays for randomly accessible hash type data structures.


KJN: Yes, [array get $arrayName] is a good string representation. What makes me slightly uncomfortable is that Tcl has two types of compound variables (lists and arrays) that are appropriate in different situations and need different handling (with arrays arguably not first-class objects). I wasn't aware of the dict (in Tcl 8.5).

This would be most useful if it could do everything that lists and arrays can do now, so that lists and arrays can either be deprecated, or implemented in terms of a dict.

RS protests - lists are the most versatile containers (for structs, vectors, matrices, trees, stacks, queues, ...), while dicts are more specialized (but can take over most jobs of arrays, except for traces on array elements). I'd like to have both of them in the future :)

LV: Some might say that using lists for vectors and matrices is a bit like using duct tape to hold a boat together... BLT's vector data type is often mentioned as being a useful data structure when vectors are intended for visualization. Also I guess I misremembered dicts as having more restrictions than just traces.

RS: Hm.. vectors are one-dimensional containers for elements - as are lists. Matrices are two-(or more-)dimensional containers for elements - as are lists of lists. Tcl lists are implemented in C as Tcl_Obj*[], costing ~12 bytes of overhead per list elements. Restricted vectors or matrices could be implemented slightly more efficiently, but would needlessly enlarge the variety of data types that is seen as a problem on this page. Tcl isn't an extreme-performance language (C or Assembler are much better at that), but it has great abstractions (like lists and arrays) to boast.

So I'd not call lists just "duct tape", but rather: simple yet powerful abstractions of containers. More like Swiss Army Knives :)

AM: I consider Tcl's lists to be very similar to C's arrays and Fortran's one-dimensional arrays, with the added advantages of bound checking, automatic size management and heterogeneous content. That makes them more versatile than either of Tcl's arrays or dicts in many ways, but these have their advantages too ...

Compare this to the wealth of data structures that is described in literature! If you only look at the different ways of specialising tree structures! Of course you can do a lot with just C-style arrays. But it does not mean that other structures are not useful from time to time.

DKF: Tcl arrays have a lot in common with Java's java.util.HashMap class, as to dicts. Tcl lists are more like ArrayLists

LV: I guess I would see the connection between lists and vectors and matrices easier if there were built in syntactical sugar to allow accessing the elements of a list simpler. For instance, maybe something like

set l [list this is a series of vector elements]
set m [$l{3}]         ;# Sugar for [lindex $l 3]
set l{2:4} [list not just any]        ;# Results in [list this is not just any vector elements]

or something else that made things seem a bit cleaner.

DKF: Well, I'm thinking of fitting a new rear-end to arrays which might make such things easier.

Misc

AB: Is there a boolean function or command that identifies if an index of an array (or the element of a list) is empty? For instance, if xcrd(1) = {} , is there a boolean function that'll take in xcrd(1) and return 1, confirming that it's an empty index?

LES: Does that help?

proc  isempty  {foo}   {
    regexp  {^([^(]+)\(([^(]+)\)}  $foo  =>  array  key
    global  $array
    if  { [info exists $array] == 0 }       { 
        return "$array? There is no $array array."
    }
    if  { [array get $array $key] == "" }   { 
        return "$array exists, but there is no $key key in $array array"
    }
    if  { [ string length [lindex [array get $array $key] 1] ] == 0 }  { 
        return "YES - [join "$array ( $key )" {}] exists and IT IS EMPTY"
    }
    return "NO - [join "$array ( $key )" {}] exists and IT IS NOT EMPTY"
}

Testing:

set xcrd(1) this
set xcrd(2) that
set xcrd(3) ""

puts [isempty xcrd(1)]
puts [isempty xcrd(2)]
puts [isempty xcrd(3)]
puts [isempty xcrd(4)]
puts [isempty blah(4)]

MG: The regexp above is actually a little wrong - [set myArray(key() value] sets the "key(" element of myArray to "value", but LES's regexp won't match it (or the 'empty variable', $()). You can even use [set array(key(name)) value] and get an element in "array" called "key(name)". So I think the regexp pattern would need to be''

regexp {^([^(]*)\((.*)\)$} $foo => array key

though there's probably a hole in that, somewhere, too (and it's untested, at 20 to midnight, so may not do what I meant anyway ;)

MG: offers an alternative which works on lists, as well as arrays. It treats non-existant array elements as empty, rather than raising an error.

proc isempty2 {_var elem} {
    upvar $_var var
    if { ![info exists var] } {
        return -code error "variable \"$_var\" is not set";
    }
    if { ![array exists var] } {
        if { ![string is integer -strict $elem] } {
            return -code error "second arg must be a number, for non-arrays";
        }
        set text [lindex $var $elem]
    } elseif { ![info exists var($elem)] } {
        return 1; # empty - element doesn't exist
    } else {
        set text $var($elem)
    }
    return [expr {$text == ""}];
};# isempty2

set list [list 0 {} 2]
set a(zero) "value"
set a(one)  ""
set a(two)  "value"

% isempty2 list 0
0
% isempty2 list 1
1
% isempty2 a zero
0
% isempty2 a one
1

When using a list, instead of an array, the second argument has to be a number.


LV 2006-11-16: Looks like Wikipedia's page on associated arrays covers only the minimal aspects of Tcl's contribution

[L1 ].

AMG: This section has been moved: [L2 ].