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       Note: the case command is obsolete and is  supported  only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 argu-
       ments.  The first uses a separate argument for each of the
       patterns  and commands; this form is convenient if substi-
       tutions 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.


SEE ALSO
       switch(n)


KEYWORDS
       case, match, regular expression
