TCL wildcard/glob usage within file name

Question

I have code that is like this:

...
proc myProc {first last} {
    for { set i $first } { $i <= $last } { incr i } {
        set i_cur "PlainText$i"
        <command> [glob ./../myDir/${i_cur}*]
    }
}

When I run this, any file that has nothing after the number will run fine. But if there is something after the number then it doesn't. For example, I have the valid files named PlainText0.txt, PlainText00.txt, and PlainText1_Plaintext.txt. The first two work and PlainText1_Plaintext.txt doesn't.

Basically, I do not think I am using a glob/wildcard correctly, but don't know how.

Answer 1

The usual issues with this sort of thing are when you've got the glob for what you want wrong, or when you've got a command that needs the list returned by glob expanded.

If it's that the command needs the list expanded, you need to use:

<command> {*}[glob ...]

That {*} in front of the bracket expands the results into multiple arguments. Sometimes, this instead requires you to iterate over the results and pass them in one at a time:

foreach filename [glob ...] {
    <command> $filename
}

When it comes to the glob itself, you're not quite clear whether PlainText1_stuff.txt is acceptable to you or not. However, it is matched by the pattern PlainText1*. If it isn't acceptable, maybe you need PlainText1.*; the extra . is important to what is matched here.

Also, consider using the -directory option to glob as it makes your code clearer (especially if you're on one of the platforms that allows glob metacharacters in filenames).

---

Overall, you're perhaps looking at something like this:

<command> {*}[glob -directory ../myDir PlainText$i.*]

You can use a helper variable if you want.