'\"
'\" Copyright (c) 1994-1997 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
'\"
'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
'\" 
'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: WrongNumArgs.3,v 1.5 2002/07/01 18:24:39 jenglish Exp $
'\" 
.so man.macros
.TH Tcl_WrongNumArgs 3 8.0 Tcl "Tcl Library Procedures"
.BS
.SH NAME
Tcl_WrongNumArgs \- generate standard error message for wrong number of arguments
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
\fB#include <tcl.h>\fR
.sp
\fBTcl_WrongNumArgs\fR(\fIinterp, objc, objv, message\fR)
.SH ARGUMENTS
.AS Tcl_Interp "*CONST objv[]"
.AP Tcl_Interp interp in
Interpreter in which error will be reported: error message gets stored
in its result object.
.AP int objc in
Number of leading arguments from \fIobjv\fR to include in error
message.
.AP Tcl_Obj "*CONST\ objv[]" in
Arguments to command that had the wrong number of arguments.
.AP "CONST char" *message in
Additional error information to print after leading arguments
from \fIobjv\fR.  This typically gives the acceptable syntax
of the command.  This argument may be NULL.
.BE

.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
\fBTcl_WrongNumArgs\fR is a utility procedure that is invoked by
command procedures when they discover that they have received the
wrong number of arguments.  \fBTcl_WrongNumArgs\fR generates a
standard error message and stores it in the result object of
\fIinterp\fR.  The message includes the \fIobjc\fR initial
elements of \fIobjv\fR plus \fImessage\fR.  For example, if
\fIobjv\fR consists of the values \fBfoo\fR and \fBbar\fR,
\fIobjc\fR is 1, and \fImessage\fR is ``\fBfileName count\fR''
then \fIinterp\fR's result object will be set to the following
string:
.CS
wrong # args: should be "foo fileName count"
.CE
If \fIobjc\fR is 2, the result will be set to the following string:
.CS
wrong # args: should be "foo bar fileName count"
.CE
\fIObjc\fR is usually 1, but may be 2 or more for commands like
\fBstring\fR and the Tk widget commands, which use the first argument
as a subcommand.  
.PP
Some of the objects in the \fIobjv\fR array may be abbreviations for
a subcommand.  The command
\fBTcl_GetIndexFromObj\fR will convert the abbreviated string object
into an \fIindexObject\fR.  If an error occurs in the parsing of the
subcommand we would like to use the full subcommand name rather than
the abbreviation.  If the \fBTcl_WrongNumArgs\fR command finds any
\fIindexObjects\fR in the \fIobjv\fR array it will use the full subcommand
name in the error message instead of the abbreviated name that was
originally passed in.  Using the above example, lets assume that
\fIbar\fR is actually an abbreviation for \fIbarfly\fR and the object
is now an indexObject because it was passed to
\fBTcl_GetIndexFromObj\fR.  In this case the error message would be:
.CS
wrong # args: should be "foo barfly fileName count"
.CE

.SH "SEE ALSO"
Tcl_GetIndexFromObj

.SH KEYWORDS
command, error message, wrong number of arguments