TCL Scripting
Strings
Basem Atia
June-2025
TCL Strings
String first
➢ Command Description
➢ string first string1 string2
➢ Returns the index of the character in string1 that starts the first match to string2, or -1 if there is no match
➢ Example:
puts [string first "l" "hello"]
puts [string first "z" "hello"]
➢ Output:
2
-1
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 2
TCL Strings
String last
➢ Command Description
➢ string last string1 string2
➢ Returns the index of the character in string1 that starts the last match to string2, or -1 if there is no match
➢ Example:
puts [string last "l" "hello"]
puts [string last "z" "hello"]
➢ Output:
3
-1
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 3
TCL Strings
String equal
➢ Command Description
➢ string equal string1 string2
➢ Compares two strings for exact equality, case-sensitive. Returns 1 if equal, 0 if not.
➢ Example:
puts [string equal "hello" "hello"]
puts [string equal "hello" "Hello"]
➢ Output:
1
0
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 4
TCL Strings
String match
➢ Command Description
➢ string match string1 string2
➢ Returns the index of the character in string1 that starts the first match to string2, or -1 if there is no match
➢ Example:
puts [string match "he*" "hello"]
puts [string match "he?" "hello"]
➢ Output:
1
0
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 5
TCL Strings
String range
➢ Command Description
➢ string range string firstIndex lastIndex
➢ Extracts a substring from a string, between given start and end indices
➢ Example:
puts [string range "abcdef" 2 4]
➢ Output:
cde
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 6
TCL Strings
String index
➢ Command Description
➢ string insert string index
➢ Returns the character at a specific index in a string and is
➢ zero based
➢ Example:
puts [string index "hello" 1]
➢ Output:
e
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 7
TCL Strings
String length
➢ Command Description
➢ string length string
➢ Returns the number of characters in a string
➢ NOT zero based
➢ Example:
puts [string length "hello"]
➢ Output:
5
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 8
TCL Strings
join
➢ Command Description
➢ Join string delimiter
➢ Joins a list of strings into a single string, separated by a given delimiter.
➢ Default delimiter is white space
➢ Example:
puts [join {apple banana cherry} ", "]
➢ Output:
apple, banana, cherry
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 9
TCL Strings
split
➢ Command Description
➢ Split string delimiter
➢ Splits a string into a list based on each character of a delimiter string
➢ Default delimiter is whitespace
➢ Example:
set str "a,b,c"
set result [split $str ","]
puts $result
➢ Output:
abc
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 10
TCL Strings
String append
➢ Command Description
➢ append varName value
➢ Appends one or more strings to the end of a variable's current value.
➢ Example:
set a "Hello"
append a " World"
puts $a
➢ Output:
Hello World
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 11
TCL Strings
regexp
➢ Command Description
➢ regexp ?switches? exp string
➢ Tests if a string matches a regular expression pattern.
➢ Returns 1 if there's a match, 0 otherwise.
➢ Example:
puts [regexp {h.llo} "hello"]
puts [regexp {\d+} "abc123"]
➢ Output:
1
1
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 12
TCL Strings
regsub
➢ Command Description
➢ regsub ?switches? exp string subSpec ?varName?
➢ Replaces parts of a string that match a regular expression with a replacement string
➢ Example:
set str "abc123"
regsub {\d+} $str "NUM" newstr
puts $newstr
➢ Output:
abcNUM
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 13
TCL Strings
Format
➢ Command Description
➢ format formatString ?arg arg ...?
➢ Formats strings in a C-style way (like printf),
➢ Example:
puts [format "Pi is approximately %.2f" 3.14159]
➢ Output:
Pi is approximately 3.14
Basem Atia | Physical Design CAD
TCL Scripting 14
