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

# tdbc\_tokenize(n)

TDBC SQL tokenizer

```

```

## NAME

tdbc::tokenize - TDBC SQL tokenizer

## SYNOPSIS

```
package require tdbc 1.0
tdbc::tokenize string
```

```

```

## DESCRIPTION

As a convenience to database drivers, Tcl Database Connectivity (TDBC) provides a command to break SQL code apart into tokens so that bound variables can readily be identified and substituted.

The **tdbc::tokenize** command accepts as its parameter a string that is expected to contain one or more SQL statements. It returns a list of substrings; concatenating these substrings together will yield the original string. Each substring is one of the following:

- \[1\]

  A bound variable, which begins with one of the characters '**:**', '**@**', or '**$**'. The remainder of the string is the variable name and will consist of alphanumeric characters and underscores. (The leading character will be be non-numeric.)

- \[2\]

  A semicolon that separates two SQL statements.

- \[3\]

  Something else in a SQL statement. The tokenizer does not attempt to parse SQL; it merely identifies bound variables (distinguishing them from similar strings appearing inside quotes or comments) and statement delimiters.

## SEE ALSO

[tdbc(n)](/tdbc/n.md), tdbc::connection(n), tdbc::statement(n), tdbc::resultset(n)

## KEYWORDS

TDBC, SQL, database, tokenize

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2008 by Kevin B. Kenny.