vector(n)

💖 vector(n) 💖

bestie, this is the vector(n) page from BLT Built-In Commands, and it's giving ordered-number main character energy. 🌈

✨ NAME ✨

vector — Vector data type for Tcl

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

vector configure option value ...

vector create vecName ?vecName...? ?switches?

vector destroy vecName ?vecName...?

vector expr expression

vector names ?pattern...?

vector op operation vecName ?arg?...

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The vector command creates a vector of floating point values. The vector's components can be manipulated in three ways: through a Tcl array variable, a Tcl command, or the C API.

🎀 INTRODUCTION 🎀

A vector is simply an ordered set of numbers. The components of a vector are real numbers, indexed by counting numbers.

Vectors are common data structures for many applications. For example, a graph may use two vectors to represent the X-Y coordinates of the data plotted. The graph will automatically be redrawn when the vectors are updated or changed. By using vectors, you can separate data analysis from the graph widget. This makes it easier, for example, to add data transformations, such as splines. It's possible to plot the same data to in multiple graphs, where each graph presents a different view or scale of the data.

You could try to use Tcl's associative arrays as vectors. Tcl arrays are easy to use. You can access individual elements randomly by specifying the index, or set the entire array by providing a list of index and value pairs for each element. The disadvantages of associative arrays as vectors lie in the fact they are implemented as hash tables.

There's no implied ordering to the associative arrays. If you used vectors for plotting, you would want to insure the second component comes after the first, an so on. This isn't possible since arrays are actually hash tables. For example, you can't get a range of values between two indices. Nor can you sort an array.
Arrays consume lots of memory when the number of elements becomes large (tens of thousands). This is because each element's index and value are stored as strings in the hash table.
The C programming interface is unwieldy. Normally with vectors, you would like to view the Tcl array as you do a C array, as an array of floats or doubles. But with hash tables, you must convert both the index and value to and from decimal strings, just to access an element in the array. This makes it cumbersome to perform operations on the array as a whole.

The vector command tries to overcome these disadvantages while still retaining the ease of use of Tcl arrays. The vector command creates both a new Tcl command and associate array which are linked to the vector components. You can randomly access vector components though the elements of array. Not all indices are generated for the array, so printing the array (using the parray procedure) does not print out all the component values. You can use the Tcl command to access the array as a whole. You can copy, append, or sort vector using its command. If you need greater performance, or customized behavior, you can write your own C code to manage vectors.

🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

You create vectors using the vector command and its create operation.

# Create a new vector.
vector create y(50)

This creates a new vector named y. It has fifty components, by default, initialized to 0.0. In addition, both a Tcl command and array variable, both named y, are created. You can use either the command or variable to query or modify components of the vector.

# Set the first value.
set y(0) 9.25
puts "y has [y length] components"

The array y can be used to read or set individual components of the vector. Vector components are indexed from zero. The array index must be a number less than the number of components. For example, it's an error if you try to set the 51st element of y.

# This is an error. The vector only has 50 components.
set y(50) 0.02

You can also specify a range of indices using a colon (:) to separate the first and last indices of the range.

# Set the first six components of y
set y(0:5) 25.2

If you don't include an index, then it will default to the first and/or last component of the vector.

# Print out all the components of y
puts "y = $y(:)"

There are special non-numeric indices. The index end, specifies the last component of the vector. It's an error to use this index if the vector is empty (length is zero). The index ++end can be used to extend the vector by one component and initialize it to a specific value. You can't read from the array using this index, though.

# Extend the vector by one component.
set y(++end) 0.02

The other special indices are min and max. They return the current smallest and largest components of the vector.

# Print the bounds of the vector
puts "min=$y(min) max=$y(max)"

To delete components from a vector, simply unset the corresponding array element. In the following example, the first component of y is deleted. All the remaining components of y will be moved down by one index as the length of the vector is reduced by one.

# Delete the first component
unset y(0)
puts "new first element is $y(0)"

The vector's Tcl command can also be used to query or set the vector.

# Create and set the components of a new vector
vector create x
x set { 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.20 }

Here we've created a vector x without a initial length specification. In this case, the length is zero. The set operation resets the vector, extending it and setting values for each new component.

There are several operations for vectors. The range operation lists the components of a vector between two indices.

# List the components
puts "x = [x range 0 end]"

You can search for a particular value using the search operation. It returns a list of indices of the components with the same value. If no component has the same value, it returns "".

# Find the index of the biggest component
set indices [x search $x(max)]

Other operations copy, append, or sort vectors. You can append vectors or new values onto an existing vector with the append operation.

# Append assorted vectors and values to x
x append x2 x3 { 2.3 4.5 } x4

The sort operation sorts the vector. If any additional vectors are specified, they are rearranged in the same order as the vector. For example, you could use it to sort data points represented by x and y vectors.

# Sort the data points
x sort y

The vector x is sorted while the components of y are rearranged so that the original x,y coordinate pairs are retained.

The expr operation lets you perform arithmetic on vectors. The result is stored in the vector.

# Add the two vectors and a scalar
x expr { x + y }
x expr { x * 2 }

When a vector is modified, resized, or deleted, it may trigger call-backs to notify the clients of the vector. For example, when a vector used in the graph widget is updated, the vector automatically notifies the widget that it has changed. The graph can then redrawn itself at the next idle point. By default, the notification occurs when Tk is next idle. This way you can modify the vector many times without incurring the penalty of the graph redrawing itself for each change. You can change this behavior using the notify operation.

# Make vector x notify after every change
x notify always
  ...
# Never notify
x notify never
  ...
# Force notification now
x notify now

# Set Tcl callback for update of Tktable widget .t.
x notify callback {.t conf -padx [.t cget -padx]; .t reread}

To delete a vector, use the vector delete command. Both the vector and its corresponding Tcl command are destroyed.

# Remove vector x
vector destroy x

The psuedo vector last can be used at the end of an expression to implement running totals. During execution it resolves to the result from the previous vector element evaluation.

vector create A(10)
vector create B(10)
vector create S(10)
vector create T(10)
S expr A+B
T expr S+last; # Running total

✨ SYNTAX ✨

okay so the create operation can be invoked in one of three forms (bestie, the count is lowkey giving chaos, but here's the lineup):

vector create vecName — makes a fresh new vector called vecName that starts off with no components whatsoever.
vector create vecName(size) — this second form makes a new vector that will contain size number of components. They're indexed starting from zero (0). The default value for the components is 0.0.
vector create vecName(rows,columns) — this form lets you create a matrix with the specified columns and rows*columns elements. See the matrix section for more details.
vector create vecName(first:last) — the last form creates a new vector indexed first through last. first and last can be any integer value so long as first is less than last.

Vector names must start with a letter and consist of letters, digits, or underscores. no cap, that's the rule 🎀

# Error: must start with letter
vector create 1abc

You can automatically generate vector names using the "#auto" vector name. The create operation will generate a unique vector name. slay, no naming stress ✨

set vec [vector create #auto]
puts "$vec has [$vec length] components"

💅 VECTOR INDICES 💅

Vectors are indexed by integers. You can access the individual vector components via its array variable or Tcl command. The string representing the index can be an integer, a numeric expression, a range, or a special keyword.

The index must lie within the current range of the vector, otherwise an error message is returned. Normally a vector's indices start from 0. But you can use the offset operation to change a vector's indices on-the-fly.

puts $vecName(0)
vecName offset -5
puts $vecName(-5)

When matrix numcols is > 1, 2D indexes are supported using ROW,COL form. iykyk 🦋

vecName matrix numcols 3
puts vecName(0,2)

You can also use numeric expressions as indices. The result of the expression must be an integer value.

set n 21
set vecName($n+3) 50.2

The following special non-numeric indices are available: min, max, end, and ++end.

puts "min = $vecName($min)"
set vecName(end) -1.2

The indices min and max will return the minimum and maximum values of the vector. Also available are: prod, sum, and mean. The index end returns the value of the last component in the vector. The index end,0 returns the value of the last row in column 0 of the vector. The index ++end is used to append new value onto the vector. It automatically extends the vector by numcols and sets its value. obsessed with a good append moment 💖

# Append an new component to the end
set vecName(++end) 3.2

A range of indices can be indicated by a colon (:).

# Set the first six components to 1.0
set vecName(0:5) 1.0

If no index is supplied the first or last component is assumed.

# Print the values of all the components
puts $vecName(:)

✨ VECTOR OPERATIONS ✨

Okay bestie, this is the operations zone 💅 — the place where you actually do stuff with vectors. Let’s get into it.

vector configure ? -flush bool -watchunset bool -oldcreate bool -maxsize int -novariable bool -nocommand bool? — Sets the default options used in creating vectors. These options are global to the interpreter. The -maxsize option, when non-zero, limits creation size. The -oldcreate enables the creation shortcut: vector vec1 vec2 .... See the create command for details on the others. By default, these are all disabled or zero.
vector create vecName?(size)?... ?switches? — Creates a new vector vecName. The size may be an integer, a START:END range or ROW,COL (see matrix). This creates both a Tcl command and array variable called vecName. The name vecName must be unique, so another Tcl command or array variable can not already exist in the current scope. You may access the components of the vector using the variable. If you change a value in the array, or unset an array element, the vector is updated to reflect the changes. When the variable vecName is unset, the vector and its Tcl command are also destroyed.

The vector has optional switches that affect how the vector is created. They are as follows:

-variable varName — Specifies the name of a Tcl variable to be mapped to the vector. If the variable already exists, it is first deleted, then recreated. If varName is the empty string, then no variable will be mapped. You can always map a variable back to the vector using the vector’s variable operation.
-command cmdName — Maps a Tcl command to the vector. The vector can be accessed using cmdName and one of the vector instance operations. A Tcl command by that name cannot already exist. If cmdName is the empty string, no command mapping will be made.
-watchunset boolean — Indicates that the vector should automatically delete itself if the variable associated with the vector is unset. By default, the vector will not be deleted. This is different from previous releases. Set boolean to "true" to get the old behavior.
-flush boolean — Indicates that the vector should automatically flush the cached variable elements which unsets all the elements of the Tcl array variable associated with the vector, freeing memory associated with the variable. This includes both the hash table and the hash keys. The down side is that this effectively flushes the caching of vector elements in the array. This means that the subsequent reads of the array will require a decimal to string conversion. By default, flushing is disabled.

vector destroy vecName ?vecName...? — Destroy vectors. simple as that 🫶
vector expr expression — All binary operators take vectors as operands (remember that numbers are treated as one-component vectors). The exact action of binary operators depends upon the length of the second operand. If the second operand has only one component, then each element of the first vector operand is computed by that value. For example, the expression "x * 2" multiples all elements of the vector x by 2. If the second operand has more than one component, both operands must be the same length. Each pair of corresponding elements are computed. So "x + y" adds the first components of x and y together, the second, and so on.

The valid operators are listed below, grouped in decreasing order of precedence:

-, ! — Unary minus and logical NOT. The unary minus flips the sign of each component in the vector. The logical not operator returns a vector of whose values are 0.0 or 1.0. For each non-zero component 1.0 is returned, 0.0 otherwise.
^ — Exponentiation.
*, /, % — Multiply, divide, remainder.
+, - — Add and subtract.
<<, >> — Left and right shift. Circularly shifts the values of the vector.
<, >, <=, >= — Boolean less, greater, less than or equal, and greater than or equal. Each operator returns a vector of ones and zeros. If the condition is true, 1.0 is the component value, 0.0 otherwise.
==, != — Boolean equal and not equal. Each operator returns a vector of ones and zeros. If the condition is true, 1.0 is the component value, 0.0 otherwise.
&& — Logical AND. Produces a 1 result if both operands are non-zero, 0 otherwise.
|| — Logical OR. Produces a 0 result if both operands are zero, 1 otherwise.
x?y:z — If-then-else, as in C.

See the C manual for more details on the results produced by each operator. All of the binary operators group left-to-right within the same precedence level.

Several mathematical functions are supported for vectors. Each of the following functions invokes the math library function of the same name; see the manual entries for the library functions for details on what they do. The operation is applied to all elements of the vector returning the results. All functions take a vector operand. If no vector operand is used in the call, the current vector is assumed. eg.

vector create aVec
aVec seq 0 100
aVec expr {2*abs(aVec)-1}
aVec length 100
aVec expr {2*row()}
vector expr {2*row()} ; # ERROR!

acos        cos         hypot      sinh
asin        cosh        log        sqrt
atan        exp         log10      tan
ceil        floor       sin        tanh

Additional functions are:

abs — Returns the absolute value of each component.
random — Returns a vector of non-negative values uniformly distributed between [0.0, 1.0) using drand48. The seed comes from the internal clock of the machine or may be set manual with the srandom function.
round — Rounds each component of the vector.
srandom — Initializes the random number generator using srand48. The high order 32-bits are set using the integral portion of the first vector component. All other components are ignored. The low order 16-bits are set to an arbitrary value.

The following functions return a single value.

adev — Returns the average deviation (defined as the sum of the absolute values of the differences between component and the mean, divided by the length of the vector).
kurtosis — Returns the degree of peakedness (fourth moment) of the vector.
length — Returns the number of components in the vector.
max — Returns the vector’s maximum value.
mean — Returns the mean value of the vector.
median — Returns the median of the vector.
min — Returns the vector’s minimum value.
q1 — Returns the first quartile of the vector.
q3 — Returns the third quartile of the vector.
prod — Returns the product of the components.
sdev — Returns the standard deviation (defined as the square root of the variance) of the vector.
skew — Returns the skewness (or third moment) of the vector. This characterizes the degree of asymmetry of the vector about the mean.
sum — Returns the sum of the components.
var — Returns the variance of the vector. The sum of the squared differences between each component and the mean is computed. The variance is the sum divided by the length of the vector minus 1.

This last set of functions returns a vector of the same length as the argument.

invert — Returns vector with elements in reversed order.
norm — Scales the values of the vector to lie in the range [0.0..1.0].
row — Psuedo function to get the current row.
sort — Returns the vector components sorted in ascending order.
shift(nVec,N) — This is the only function taking a second arg. It provides a version of nvec shifted by N places. When N is a scalar or vector with only one element, shift fills vacant area with 0. Otherwise the second element of nVec is used for the fill value. One use for this is providing running totals.
vector names ?pattern? — Return names of all defined vectors.
vector op operation vecName ?arg?... — Invoke instance operation. Supported operations are defined in the next section. Op is the only way to invoke instance operation sub-commands when -command is defined as empty in a vector. It also allows writing vector code that is checkable by a syntax checkers. eg.

vector create v1
v1 op append {1 2 3}
v1 op modify 1 2.1

🦋 INSTANCE OPERATIONS 🦋

You can also use the vector’s Tcl command to query or modify it. The general form is vecName operation ?arg?... Note this is equivalent to the form: vector op operation vecName ?arg?... Both operation and its arguments determine the exact behavior of the command. The operations available for vectors are listed below.

vecName + item, vecName - item, vecName * item, vecName / item — Perform binary op and return result as a list.
vecName append item ?item?... — Appends the component values from item to vecName. Item can be either the name of a vector or a list of numeric values.

Next up: the instance commands that actually touch vector data 💖 no heading repeat, just exact behavior and good vibes.

vecName binread channel ?length? ?switches? — reads binary values from a Tcl channel. Values are either appended to the end of the vector or placed at a given index using -at, overwriting existing values. Data is read until EOF is found on the channel or a specified number of values length are read (and bestie, that is not necessarily the same as the number of bytes). Switches supported:
- -swap — swap bytes and words. The default endian is the host machine.
- -at index — new values start at vector index index. This overwrites any current values.
- -format format — specifies the format of the data. format can be one of the following:

"i1", "i2", "i4", "i8", "u1, "u2", "u4", "u8", "r4", "r8", or "r16"

The number indicates the number of bytes required for each value. The letter indicates the type: "i" for signed, "u" for unsigned, "r" or real. The default format is "r16".

vecName binwrite channel ?length? ?-at index? — like binread, but writes data ✨
vecName clear — clears the element indices from the array variable associated with vecName. This does not affect the components of the vector. By default, the number of entries in the Tcl array does not match the number of components in the vector. Why? Because it is too expensive to maintain decimal strings for both the index and value for each component 😭 Instead, the index and value are saved only when you read or write an element with a new index. This command removes the index and value strings from the array. Useful when the vector is large.
vecName delete index ?index?... — deletes the indexth component from the vector vecName. index is the index of the element to be deleted. This is the same as unsetting the array variable element index. The vector is compacted after all the indices have been deleted.
vecName dup destName — copies vecName to destName. destName is the name of a destination vector. If a vector destName already exists, it is overwritten with the components of vecName. Otherwise a new vector is created.
vecName expr expression — computes the expression and resets the values of the vector accordingly. Both scalar and vector math operations are allowed. All values in expressions are either real numbers or names of vectors. All numbers are treated as one component vectors.
vecName index index ?value?... — get/set individual vector values. This provides element updating when -variable is set to empty.
vecName insert index item ?item?... — inserts the component values from item to vecName at index. item can be either the name of a vector or a list of numeric values.
vecName length ?newSize? — queries or resets the number of components in vecName. newSize is a number specifying the new size of the vector. If newSize is smaller than the current size of vecName, vecName is truncated. If newSize is greater, the vector is extended and the new components are initialized to 0.0. If no newSize argument is present, the current length of the vector is returned.
vecName matrix ... — matrix provides a 2D array view into 1D data. It provides indexing operations in ROW,COL form making it suitable for use with TkTable. Data storage remains unchanged: vectors are still just a single long array. For example, here are two ways to create a 3 column by 10 row matrix:

vector create aVec(10,3)
vector create bVec(30)
bVec matrix numcols 3
set aVec(0,0) 99
set bVec(29,2) -99
aVec append {5 6 7}; # aVec now has 11 rows.
aVec append 1 2;     # Now aVec has 13 rows!

Note that data is appended only in increments of numcols. Elements 0-2 make up the first row, 3-5 the second, etc. Elements will appear only in increments of the column size.

vecName matrix copy dstcolumn srccolumn ?srcVec? — copy a column of element values to column dstcolumn from srccolumn. If vector srcVec is given, and is not the same as vecName, the columns numbers must be different. If the srcVec column is longer, vecName will be extended. If shorter, remaining destination values are not overwritten.
vecName matrix delete column. — delete elements in a column. Note that numcols, which must be greater than 1, will be decremented.
vecName matrix get column — get the element in a column: this number must be less than numcols. Note that numcols must be non-zero.
vecName matrix insert column ?initvalue? . — insert a new column of elements at column (default 0). The new column is initialized with initvalue, or 0.0 if not specified. Note that numcols will be incremented.
vecName matrix multiply srcVec ?dstVec? — perform matrix multiplication using srcVec, placing results either in dstVec, or returned as a list. The numrows of srcVec must equal numcols in vecName. One application for multiply is coordinate transformation.
vecName matrix numcols ?size? — get or set the number of columns for a vectors data. Values >1 enable array variables to accept 2d matrix indexes. For example with a numcols of 10, $vec1(1,2) refers to the 13th element in the vector. A vector's size is also constrained to multiples of numcols, as is its offset. By default, numcols is 1.
vecName matrix numrows ?size? — get or set the length of rows in columns for a vector. By default, this is just the vector length/numcols. Setting this value simply provides a convenient way to increase or decrease the vector size by multiples of numcols.
vecName matrix set column ?valuelist? — set value elements in a column: this number must be less than numcols. The valuelist is a list values. If this list is shorter than the column, its last value is used for all remaining columns. The column gets set to the values of item, or 0.0 by default.
vecName matrix shift column amount ?startoffset? — shifts the values of a column by integer amount. A negative value shifts upward. The startoffset indicates where to start shifting from.
vecName matrix sort column ?-reverse? — sort the vector by the given column.
vecName matrix transpose — transpose all columns with rows in matrix. Note that this is a no-op if numcols is 1. Otherwise, numcols will change to vectorLength/numcols.

vecName merge srcName ?srcName?... — merges the named vectors into a single vector. The resulting vector is formed by merging the components of each source vector one index at a time.
vecName notify ?keyword? ?script? — queries or controls how vector clients are notified of changes to the vector. Also allows setting a notifier callback. The exact behavior is determined by keyword.
- always — indicates that clients are to be notified immediately whenever the vector is updated.
- never — indicates that no clients are to be notified.
- whenidle — indicates that clients are to be notified at the next idle point whenever the vector is updated.
- now — if any client notifications is currently pending, they are notified immediately.
- cancel — cancels pending notifications of clients using the vector.
- pending — returns 1 if a client notification is pending, and 0 otherwise.
- callback ?script? — query or set a Tcl callback script that is evaluated when a vector is updated.
vecName populate destName ?density? — creates a vector destName which is a superset of vecName. DestName will include all the components of vecName, in addition the interval between each of the original components will contain a density number of new components, whose values are evenly distributed between the original components values. This is useful for generating abscissas to be interpolated along a spline 🎀
vecName range firstIndex ?lastIndex?... — returns a list of numeric values representing the vector components between two indices. Both firstIndex and lastIndex are indices representing the range of components to be returned. If lastIndex is less than firstIndex, the components are listed in reverse order.
vecName search value ?value? — searches for a value or range of values among the components of vecName. If one value argument is given, a list of indices of the components which equal value is returned. If a second value is also provided, then the indices of all components which lie within the range of the two values are returned. If no components are found, then "" is returned.
vecName set item — resets the components of the vector to item. item can be either a list of numeric expressions or another vector.
vecName seq start ?finish? ?step? — generates a sequence of values starting with the value start. finish indicates the terminating value of the sequence. The vector is automatically resized to contain just the sequence. If three arguments are present, step designates the interval.

With only two arguments (no finish argument), the sequence will continue until the vector is filled. With one argument, the interval defaults to 1.0.

vecName sort ?-reverse? ?argName?... — bestie, this sorts the vector vecName in increasing order. Add the -reverse flag and it sorts decreasing instead, slay. If you pass other argNames, those are names of other vectors that get rearranged in the same way as vecName, so they stay matched up. Every one of those vectors has to be the same length as vecName. The classic use case: sort the x vector of a graph while keeping the matching x,y coordinate pairs in the y vector. Iconic matching-set behavior, no cap 💅
vecName split dstName ?dstName?... — splits the vector into multiple vectors. The resulting N vectors each contain the mod-Nth element from source. Yes, it's giving modular arithmetic distribution ✨
vecName variable varName — maps a Tcl variable to the vector, creating another way to access it. The variable varName can't already exist. This overrides any current variable mapping the vector may have. So it's a whole new access route, and the old mapping gets politely yeeted 🫶

💻 C LANGUAGE API 💻

You can create, modify, and destroy vectors from C code using library routines. You need to include the header file blt.h. It contains the definition of the structure Blt_Vector, which represents the vector. It appears below, bestie:

typedef struct {
    double *valueArr;
    int numValues;
    int arraySize;
    double min, max;
} Blt_Vector;

The field valueArr points to memory holding the vector components. The components are stored in a double precision array, whose size is represented by arraySize. numValues is the length of the vector. The size of the array is always equal to or larger than the length of the vector. min and max are the minimum and maximum component values. Literally the whole vibe of the struct, preserved 🎀

🧵 LIBRARY ROUTINES 🧵

The following routines are available from C to manage vectors. Vectors are identified by the vector name.

Blt_CreateVector

Synopsis

int Blt_CreateVector (interp, vecName, length, vecPtrPtr)
             Tcl_Interp *interp;
             char *vecName;
             int length;
             Blt_Vector **vecPtrPtr;

Description

Creates a new vector vecName with a length of length. Blt_CreateVector creates both a new Tcl command and array variable vecName. Neither a command nor variable named vecName can already exist. A pointer to the vector is placed into vecPtrPtr. New vector, new command, new variable — it's giving fresh start energy 💖

Results

Returns TCL_OK if the vector is successfully created. If length is negative, a Tcl variable or command vecName already exists, or memory cannot be allocated for the vector, then TCL_ERROR is returned and interp->result will contain an error message.

Blt_DeleteVectorByName

Synopsis

int Blt_DeleteVectorByName (interp, vecName)
             Tcl_Interp *interp;
             char *vecName;

Description

Removes the vector vecName. vecName is the name of a vector which must already exist. Both the Tcl command and array variable vecName are destroyed. All clients of the vector will be notified immediately that the vector has been destroyed. Immediate notification, no ghosting 👻

Results

Returns TCL_OK if the vector is successfully deleted. If vecName is not the name a vector, then TCL_ERROR is returned and interp->result will contain an error message.

Blt_DeleteVector

Synopsis

int Blt_DeleteVector (vecPtr)
             Blt_Vector *vecPtr;

Description

Removes the vector pointed to by vecPtr. vecPtr is a pointer to a vector, typically set by Blt_GetVector or Blt_CreateVector. Both the Tcl command and array variable of the vector are destroyed. All clients of the vector will be notified immediately that the vector has been destroyed. Same delete energy, but now you're holding the pointer 🫶

Results

Returns TCL_OK if the vector is successfully deleted. If vecName is not the name a vector, then TCL_ERROR is returned and interp->result will contain an error message.

Blt_GetVector

Synopsis

int Blt_GetVector (interp, vecName, vecPtrPtr)
             Tcl_Interp *interp;
             char *vecName;
             Blt_Vector **vecPtrPtr;

Description

Retrieves the vector vecName. vecName is the name of a vector which must already exist. vecPtrPtr will be set to the address of the vector. You're basically getting the vector's main character address ✨

Results

Returns TCL_OK if the vector is successfully retrieved. If vecName is not the name of a vector, then TCL_ERROR is returned and interp->result will contain an error message.

Blt_ResetVector

Synopsis

int Blt_ResetVector (vecPtr, dataArr,
  numValues, arraySize, freeProc)
             Blt_Vector *vecPtr;
             double *dataArr;
             int *numValues;
             int *arraySize;
             Tcl_FreeProc *freeProc;

Description

Resets the components of the vector pointed to by vecPtr. Calling Blt_ResetVector will trigger the vector to dispatch notifications to its clients. dataArr is the array of doubles which represents the vector data. numValues is the number of elements in the array. arraySize is the actual size of the array (the array may be bigger than the number of values stored in it). freeProc indicates how the storage for the vector component array (dataArr) was allocated. It is used to determine how to reallocate memory when the vector is resized or destroyed. It must be TCL_DYNAMIC, TCL_STATIC, TCL_VOLATILE, or a pointer to a function to free the memory allocated for the vector array. If freeProc is TCL_VOLATILE, it indicates that dataArr must be copied and saved. If freeProc is TCL_DYNAMIC, it indicates that dataArr was dynamically allocated and that Tcl should free dataArr if necessary. Static indicates that nothing should be done to release storage for dataArr. Memory-management lore, but make it fashion 💀

Results

Returns TCL_OK if the vector is successfully resized. If newSize is negative, a vector vecName does not exist, or memory cannot be allocated for the vector, then TCL_ERROR is returned and interp->result will contain an error message.

Blt_ResizeVector

Synopsis

int Blt_ResizeVector (vecPtr, newSize)
             Blt_Vector *vecPtr;
             int newSize;

Description

Resets the length of the vector pointed to by vecPtr to newSize. If newSize is smaller than the current size of the vector, it is truncated. If newSize is greater, the vector is extended and the new components are initialized to 0.0. Calling Blt_ResetVector will trigger the vector to dispatch notifications. Shrink, grow, or glow up — the new slots start at 0.0 🌱

Results

Returns TCL_OK if the vector is successfully resized. If newSize is negative or memory can not be allocated for the vector, then TCL_ERROR is returned and interp->result will contain an error message.

Blt_VectorExists

Synopsis

int Blt_VectorExists (interp, vecName)
             Tcl_Interp *interp;
             char *vecName;

Description

Indicates if a vector named vecName exists in interp. Just a little existence check, bestie 🕵️

Results

Returns 1 if a vector vecName exists and 0 otherwise.

If your application needs to be notified when a vector changes, it can allocate a unique client identifier for itself. Using this identifier, you can then register a call-back to be made whenever the vector is updated or destroyed. By default, the call-backs are made at the next idle point. This can be changed to occur at the time the vector is modified. An application can allocate more than one identifier for any vector. When the client application is done with the vector, it should free the identifier. Notification system: very main character energy 👑

The call-back routine must be of the following type:

typedef void (Blt_VectorChangedProc) (Tcl_Interp *interp,
   ClientData clientData, Blt_VectorNotify notify);

ClientData is passed to this routine whenever it is called. You can use this to pass information to the call-back. The notify argument indicates whether the vector has been updated or destroyed. It is an enumerated type:

typedef enum {
    BLT_VECTOR_NOTIFY_UPDATE=1,
    BLT_VECTOR_NOTIFY_DESTROY=2
} Blt_VectorNotify;

Blt_AllocVectorId

Synopsis

Blt_VectorId Blt_AllocVectorId (interp, vecName)
             Tcl_Interp *interp;
             char *vecName;

Description

Allocates a client identifier for the vector vecName. This identifier can be used to specify a call-back which is triggered when the vector is updated or destroyed. Your own little vector-observing badge 🎀

Results

Returns a client identifier if successful. If vecName is not the name of a vector, then NULL is returned and interp->result will contain an error message.

Blt_GetVectorById

Synopsis

int Blt_GetVector (interp, clientId, vecPtrPtr)
             Tcl_Interp *interp;
             Blt_VectorId clientId;
             Blt_Vector **vecPtrPtr;

Description

Retrieves the vector used by clientId. clientId is a valid vector client identifier allocated by Blt_AllocVectorId. vecPtrPtr will be set to the address of the vector. Yes, the synopsis literally says Blt_GetVector here — im just reading the page, bestie 💀

Results

Returns TCL_OK if the vector is successfully retrieved.

Blt_SetVectorChangedProc

Synopsis

void Blt_SetVectorChangedProc (clientId, proc, clientData);
             Blt_VectorId clientId;
             Blt_VectorChangedProc *proc;
             ClientData *clientData;

Description: sets up a call-back routine that gets called whenever the vector tied to clientId is updated or deleted. Proc is a pointer to that call-back routine and it must be of the type Blt_VectorChangedProc. ClientData is a one-word value that gets passed along to the routine when it's invoked. If proc is NULL, then the client just… doesn't get notified. no calls, no drama 💅

Results: the designated call-back procedure will be invoked when the vector is updated or destroyed. that's it, that's the whole vibe ✨

🎀 `Blt_FreeVectorId` 🎀

Synopsis:

void Blt_FreeVectorId (clientId);
            Blt_VectorId clientId;

Description: frees the client identifier, bestie. the memory allocated for the identifier is released, and the client will no longer be notified when the vector is modified. we're breaking up with the notifications, respectfully 🫶

Results: the designated call-back procedure will be ~~no longer be~~ no longer invoked when the vector is updated or destroyed. gone, bye, blocked 💀

🦋 `Blt_NameOfVectorId` 🦋

Synopsis:

char *Blt_NameOfVectorId (clientId);
            Blt_VectorId clientId;

Description: retrieves the name of the vector that's associated with the client identifier clientId. like, what's this ID even attached to? mystery solved 🔍

Results: returns the name of the vector associated with clientId. but if clientId isn't an identifier, or the vector has already been destroyed, then NULL is returned. no name, no notes 🙈

🧚 `Blt_InstallIndexProc` 🧚

Synopsis:

void Blt_InstallIndexProc (indexName, procPtr)
            char *indexName;
            Blt_VectorIndexProc *procPtr;

Description: registers a function to be called so it can retrieve the index indexName from the vector's array variable. signature goes like this:

typedef double Blt_VectorIndexProc(Vector *vecPtr);

the function gets passed a pointer to the vector, and it must return a double representing the value at the index. that's the assignment, no substitutions ✍️

Results: the new index is installed into the vector. slay, it's official 👑

🌈 C API EXAMPLE 🌈

okay so this example is genuinely iconic — it opens a file of binary data and stores it in an array of doubles. the array size gets computed from the size of the file. if the vector "data" already exists (checking with Blt_VectorExists), then Blt_GetVector is called to grab the pointer to the vector. otherwise the routine Blt_CreateVector is called to create a brand-new vector and returns a pointer to it. just like the Tcl interface, both a new Tcl command and array variable get created when a new vector is created. it genuinely doesn't make any difference what the initial size of the vector is, since it's gonna get reset shortly anyway. and the vector only gets updated when lt_ResetVector is called — Blt_ResetVector is what makes the changes visible to the Tcl interface and to other vector clients (like a graph widget, iykyk) 📊✨

#include <tcl.h>
#include <blt.h>
...
Blt_Vector *vecPtr;
double *newArr;
FILE *f;
struct stat statBuf;
int numBytes, numValues;

f = fopen("binary.dat", "r");
fstat(fileno(f), &statBuf);
numBytes = (int)statBuf.st_size;

/* Allocate an array big enough to hold all the data */
newArr = (double *)malloc(numBytes);
numValues = numBytes / sizeof(double);
fread((void *)newArr, numValues, sizeof(double), f);
fclose(f);

if (Blt_VectorExists(interp, "data"))  {
    if (Blt_GetVector(interp, "data", &vecPtr) != TCL_OK) {
  return TCL_ERROR;
    }
} else {
   if (Blt_CreateVector(interp, "data", 0, &vecPtr) != TCL_OK) {
  return TCL_ERROR;
   }
}
/*
 * Reset the vector. Clients will be notified when Tk is idle.
 * TCL_DYNAMIC tells the vector to free the memory allocated
 * if it needs to reallocate or destroy the vector.
 */
if (Blt_ResetVector(vecPtr, newArr, numValues, numValues,
  TCL_DYNAMIC) != TCL_OK) {
    return TCL_ERROR;
}

bestie pls actually read those comments in the code — the TCL_DYNAMIC one is doing real work, it's telling the vector to free the memory allocated if it needs to reallocate or destroy the vector 🫶

💀 INCOMPATIBILITIES 💀

okay so here's the glow-up/lore drop. in previous versions, if the array variable wasn't global (like, local to a Tcl procedure), the vector got automatically destroyed when the procedure returned. like:

proc doit {} {
    # Temporary vector x
    vector x(10)
    set x(9) 2.0
      ...
}

this has changed. variables are not automatically destroyed when their variable is unset. that's the new behavior, no cap.

you can restore the old behavior by setting the "-watchunset" switch. so if you're relying on the ancient auto-destroy vibe, that switch is literally your only way back 😭

🔑 KEYWORDS 🔑

vector, graph, widget ⭐

and that's a wrap on the whole page, bestie!! 💖 this was BLT 2.5, the vector(n) manual page, delivered to you with love and also with every single flag intact 🎀 go forth and make graphs, you absolute main character 👑✨

📦 where this page comes from

nixpkgs unstable: blt 2.5.3
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 2026-11-04: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms

vector(n)

💖 vector(n) 💖

✨ NAME ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

🎀 INTRODUCTION 🎀

🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

✨ SYNTAX ✨

💅 VECTOR INDICES 💅

✨ VECTOR OPERATIONS ✨

🦋 INSTANCE OPERATIONS 🦋

💻 C LANGUAGE API 💻

🧵 LIBRARY ROUTINES 🧵

Blt_CreateVector

Synopsis

Description

Results

Blt_DeleteVectorByName

Synopsis

Description

Results

Blt_DeleteVector

Synopsis

Description

Results

Blt_GetVector

Synopsis

Description

Results

Blt_ResetVector

Synopsis

Description

Results

Blt_ResizeVector

Synopsis

Description

Results

Blt_VectorExists

Synopsis

Description

Results

Blt_AllocVectorId

Synopsis

Description

Results

Blt_GetVectorById

Synopsis

Description

Results

Blt_SetVectorChangedProc

Synopsis

🎀 Blt_FreeVectorId 🎀

🦋 Blt_NameOfVectorId 🦋

🧚 Blt_InstallIndexProc 🧚

🌈 C API EXAMPLE 🌈

💀 INCOMPATIBILITIES 💀

🔑 KEYWORDS 🔑

🎀 `Blt_FreeVectorId` 🎀

🦋 `Blt_NameOfVectorId` 🦋

🧚 `Blt_InstallIndexProc` 🧚