Synopsis  edit

info exists varName

Description  edit

info exists tests whether a variable exists and is defined.

Synopsis  edit

info exists varName

Description  edit

Returns 1 if the variable named varName exists in the current context according the the rules of name resolution, and has been defined by being given a value, returns 0 otherwise. To check whether a variable exists precisely in a certain namespace, fully-qualify the variable name.

info exists returns 0 for variables that exist but are undefined. This can happen, for example, with trace, because if a trace is set on a nonexisting variable, trace will create that variable, but leave it undefined. Although info exists doesn't detect undefined variables, namespace which -variable does. In that case, it's usually a good idea to pass a fully-qualified variable name to namespace which -variable.

Examples:

info exists a
# -> 0
set a 1
# -> 1
info exists a
# -> 1
info exists b
# -> 0
set b(2) 2
# -> 2
info exists b
# -> 1
info exists b(1)
# -> 0
info exists b(2)
# -> 1
info exists $a
# -> 0

That last command is an example of a common mistake: using $varname instead of just varname. Since the value of $a is 1, the command is asking if a variable named 1 exists.

It can be useful to store the name of a variable in another variable:

foreach var {a b c} {
    if {[info exists $var]} {
        puts "$var does indeed exist"
    } else {
        puts "$var sadly does not exist"
    }
}

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KPV: Another thing to keep in mind is that linking variable with upvar can do funny things with the existence of variables.

% set a 1
1
% upvar #0 a b
% info exists b
1
% unset a
% info exists b
0
% set a 1
1
% info exists b
1

---

2015-12-01 info exists allows for the following typo to go on undetected for a while:

if {[info exists ARRAY(KEY]} { # note the missing ')' in the array variable name.
    # ...
}

AM 2015-12-01 That is a consequence of the incredible freedom you have in using variable names. The above checks for a variable "ARRAY(KEY", not an element of the array ARRAY. You can set that variable and get its value like:

set ARRAY(KEY 1
puts ${ARRAY(KEY}

Note the braces around the name - otherwise you would get a syntax error as the name is not composed of just letters and digits and underscores.

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VI 2003-12-21: I remember reading that info exists is slow on some versions of Tcl on large arrays. Anybody have more info on that?

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DKF 2007-12-29: From 8.5 onwards, info exists is byte-compiled.

See Also  edit

info

namespace which -variable

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