## Tcl8.6.0/Tk8.6.0 Documentation > Tk C API, version 8.6.0 > GetDash

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  NAME
    Tk_GetDash — convert from string to valid dash structure.
  SYNOPSIS
    #include <tk8.6/tk.h>
    int
    Tk_GetDash(interp, string, dashPtr)
  ARGUMENTS
  DESCRIPTION
  SEE ALSO
  KEYWORDS

### NAME

Tk_GetDash — convert from string to valid dash structure.

### SYNOPSIS

#include <tk8.6/tk.h>
int
Tk_GetDash(interp, string, dashPtr)

### ARGUMENTS

Tcl_Interp *interp (in)
  Interpreter to use for error reporting.

const char *string (in)
  Textual value to be converted.

Tk_Dash *dashPtr (out)
  Points to place to store the dash pattern value converted from string. Must not be NULL.

### DESCRIPTION

These procedure parses the string and fills in the result in the Tk_Dash structure. The string can be a list of integers or a character string containing only “.,-_” and spaces. If all goes well, TCL_OK is returned and a dash descriptor is stored in the variable pointed to by dashPtr. If string does not have the proper syntax then TCL_ERROR is returned, an error message is left in the interpreter's result, and nothing is stored at *dashPtr.

The first possible syntax is a list of integers. Each element represents the number of pixels of a line segment. Only the odd segments are drawn using the “outline” color. The other segments are drawn transparent.

The second possible syntax is a character list containing only 5 possible characters “.,-_ ”. The space can be used to enlarge the space between other line elements, and can not occur in the first position of the string. Some examples:

    -dash .     = -dash {2 4}
        -dash -     = -dash {6 4}
        -dash -.    = -dash {6 4 2 4}
        -dash -..   = -dash {6 4 2 4 2 4}
        -dash {. }  = -dash {2 8}
        -dash ,     = -dash {4 4}

The main difference between this syntax and the numeric is that it is shape-conserving. This means that all values in the dash list will be multiplied by the line width before display. This ensures that “.” will always be displayed as a dot and “-” always as a dash regardless of the line width.

On systems where only a limited set of dash patterns, the dash pattern will be displayed as the most close dash pattern that is available. For example, on Windows only the first 4 of the above examples are available; the last 2 examples will be displayed identically to the first one.

### SEE ALSO

canvas, Tk_CreateItemType

### KEYWORDS

dash, conversion
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