Tcl Source Code

There's a bug in the built-in 'parray' procedure of Tcl 8.4.
<br />
The 'parray' procedure check if the variable is an array, and if it is not, then it tries to print it's content instead of it's name.

 

Code example:
<pre>
proc array_to_list {arr_VarName} {
                upvar $arr_VarName arr
                if [array exists arr] {
                                set tmp [array get arr]
                                parray arr
                                unset arr
                                parray arr
                                array set arr [array get tmp]
                                return 1
                }
                return 0
}

set b(a) "5"
set b(c) "asdas"
set b(dd) "al94i"

if [array_to_list b] {
                puts $b
} else {
                puts "BAAAAAAA"
}
</pre>

Output example:
<pre>
arr(a)  = 5
arr(c)  = asdas
arr(dd) = al94i

"arr" isn't an array
    while executing
"error "\"$a\" isn't an array""
    (procedure "parray" line 4)
    invoked from within
"parray arr"
    invoked from within
"if [array exists arr] {
                                set tmp [array get arr]
                                parray arr
                                unset arr
                                parray arr
                                array set arr [array get tmp]
                                return 1
                }"
    (procedure "array_to_list" line 3)
    invoked from within
"array_to_list b"
    invoked from within
"if [array_to_list b] {
                puts $b
} else {
                puts "BAAAAAAA"
}"
    (file ".\test.tcl" line 22)
</pre>

The line "error "\"$a\" isn't an array"" has the error, which is relevant to the second 'parray arr' line that is in the 'array_to_list' procedure.
<br />
ActiveState ActiveTcl <br />8.4.20.0.297203                                              Jun 05, 2013

Yes that makes sense! Indeed, less confusing. Thanks!

“Fixed” the error trace message in 8.5 and 8.6. No sense in confusing people unnecessarily.

Actually, it makes sense to make that change; it's not an error in <tt>parray</tt> itself, so much as its caller. It also doesn't break any existing tests in 8.5 (8.4 being closed to changes now…)

I suppose we could use <tt>return -code error</tt> instead of <tt>error</tt>. Like it's important.

This error message:

"arr" isn't an array

looks perfectly OK to me.