Automatic String Completion

Automatic String Completion — support for automatic completion using a group of target strings.

Synopsis


#include <glib.h>


                    GCompletion;
GCompletion*        g_completion_new                    (GCompletionFunc func);
gchar*              (*GCompletionFunc)                  (gpointer );
void                g_completion_add_items              (GCompletion *cmp,
                                                         GList *items);
void                g_completion_remove_items           (GCompletion *cmp,
                                                         GList *items);
void                g_completion_clear_items            (GCompletion *cmp);
GList*              g_completion_complete               (GCompletion *cmp,
                                                         const gchar *prefix,
                                                         gchar **new_prefix);
GList*              g_completion_complete_utf8          (GCompletion *cmp,
                                                         const gchar *prefix,
                                                         gchar **new_prefix);
void                g_completion_set_compare            (GCompletion *cmp,
                                                         GCompletionStrncmpFunc strncmp_func);
gint                (*GCompletionStrncmpFunc)           (const gchar *s1,
                                                         const gchar *s2,
                                                         gsize n);
void                g_completion_free                   (GCompletion *cmp);

Description

GCompletion provides support for automatic completion of a string using any group of target strings. It is typically used for file name completion as is common in many UNIX shells.

A GCompletion is created using g_completion_new(). Target items are added and removed with g_completion_add_items(), g_completion_remove_items() and g_completion_clear_items(). A completion attempt is requested with g_completion_complete() or g_completion_complete_utf8(). When no longer needed, the GCompletion is freed with g_completion_free().

Items in the completion can be simple strings (e.g. filenames), or pointers to arbitrary data structures. If data structures are used you must provide a GCompletionFunc in g_completion_new(), which retrieves the item's string from the data structure. You can change the way in which strings are compared by setting a different GCompletionStrncmpFunc in g_completion_set_compare().

Details

GCompletion

typedef struct {
  GList* items;
  GCompletionFunc func;
 
  gchar* prefix;
  GList* cache;
  GCompletionStrncmpFunc strncmp_func;
} GCompletion;

The data structure used for automatic completion.

GList *items; list of target items (strings or data structures).
GCompletionFunc func; function which is called to get the string associated with a target item. It is NULL if the target items are strings.
gchar *prefix; the last prefix passed to g_completion_complete() or g_completion_complete_utf8().
GList *cache; the list of items which begin with prefix.
GCompletionStrncmpFunc strncmp_func; The function to use when comparing strings. Use g_completion_set_compare() to modify this function.

g_completion_new ()

GCompletion*        g_completion_new                    (GCompletionFunc func);

Creates a new GCompletion.

func : the function to be called to return the string representing an item in the GCompletion, or NULL if strings are going to be used as the GCompletion items.
Returns : the new GCompletion.

GCompletionFunc ()

gchar*              (*GCompletionFunc)                  (gpointer );

Specifies the type of the function passed to g_completion_new(). It should return the string corresponding to the given target item. This is used when you use data structures as GCompletion items.

Param1 : the completion item.
Returns : the string corresponding to the item.

g_completion_add_items ()

void                g_completion_add_items              (GCompletion *cmp,
                                                         GList *items);

Adds items to the GCompletion.

cmp : the GCompletion.
items : the list of items to add.

g_completion_remove_items ()

void                g_completion_remove_items           (GCompletion *cmp,
                                                         GList *items);

Removes items from a GCompletion.

cmp : the GCompletion.
items : the items to remove.

g_completion_clear_items ()

void                g_completion_clear_items            (GCompletion *cmp);

Removes all items from the GCompletion.

cmp : the GCompletion.

g_completion_complete ()

GList*              g_completion_complete               (GCompletion *cmp,
                                                         const gchar *prefix,
                                                         gchar **new_prefix);

Attempts to complete the string prefix using the GCompletion target items.

cmp : the GCompletion.
prefix : the prefix string, typically typed by the user, which is compared with each of the items.
new_prefix : if non-NULL, returns the longest prefix which is common to all items that matched prefix, or NULL if no items matched prefix. This string should be freed when no longer needed.
Returns : the list of items whose strings begin with prefix. This should not be changed.

g_completion_complete_utf8 ()

GList*              g_completion_complete_utf8          (GCompletion *cmp,
                                                         const gchar *prefix,
                                                         gchar **new_prefix);

Attempts to complete the string prefix using the GCompletion target items. In contrast to g_completion_complete(), this function returns the largest common prefix that is a valid UTF-8 string, omitting a possible common partial character.

You should use this function instead of g_completion_complete() if your items are UTF-8 strings.

cmp : the GCompletion
prefix : the prefix string, typically used by the user, which is compared with each of the items
new_prefix : if non-NULL, returns the longest prefix which is common to all items that matched prefix, or NULL if no items matched prefix. This string should be freed when no longer needed.
Returns : the list of items whose strings begin with prefix. This should not be changed.

Since 2.4

g_completion_set_compare ()

void                g_completion_set_compare            (GCompletion *cmp,
                                                         GCompletionStrncmpFunc strncmp_func);

Sets the function to use for string comparisons. The default string comparison function is strncmp().

cmp : a GCompletion.
strncmp_func : the string comparison function.

GCompletionStrncmpFunc ()

gint                (*GCompletionStrncmpFunc)           (const gchar *s1,
                                                         const gchar *s2,
                                                         gsize n);

Specifies the type of the function passed to g_completion_set_compare(). This is used when you use strings as GCompletion items.

s1 : string to compare with s2.
s2 : string to compare with s1.
n : maximal number of bytes to compare.
Returns : an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if the first n bytes of s1 is found, respectively, to be less than, to match, or to be greater than the first n bytes of s2.

g_completion_free ()

void                g_completion_free                   (GCompletion *cmp);

Frees all memory used by the GCompletion.

cmp : the GCompletion.