---
name: "case"
section: "n"
platform: "linux"
package: "tcl"
version: "8.6.16-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/case/n"
---

# case(n)

Evaluate one of several scripts, depending on a given value

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## NAME

case - Evaluate one of several scripts, depending on a given value

## SYNOPSIS

**case** *string* ?**in**? *patList body* ?*patList body* ...?

**case** *string* ?**in**? {*patList body* ?*patList body* ...?}

```

```

## DESCRIPTION

*Note: the* **case** *command is obsolete and is supported only* *for backward compatibility.  At some point in the future it may be* *removed entirely.  You should use the* **switch** *command instead.*

The **case** command matches *string* against each of the *patList* arguments in order. Each *patList* argument is a list of one or more patterns.  If any of these patterns matches *string* then **case** evaluates the following *body* argument by passing it recursively to the Tcl interpreter and returns the result of that evaluation. Each *patList* argument consists of a single pattern or list of patterns.  Each pattern may contain any of the wild-cards described under **string match**.  If a *patList* argument is **default**, the corresponding body will be evaluated if no *patList* matches *string*.  If no *patList* argument matches *string* and no default is given, then the **case** command returns an empty string.

Two syntaxes are provided for the *patList* and *body* arguments. The first uses a separate argument for each of the patterns and commands; this form is convenient if substitutions are desired on some of the patterns or commands. The second form places all of the patterns and commands together into a single argument; the argument must have proper list structure, with the elements of the list being the patterns and commands. The second form makes it easy to construct multi-line case commands, since the braces around the whole list make it unnecessary to include a backslash at the end of each line. Since the *patList* arguments are in braces in the second form, no command or variable substitutions are performed on them;  this makes the behavior of the second form different than the first form in some cases.

## SEE ALSO

[switch(n)](/switch/n.md)

## KEYWORDS

case, match, regular expression