Changing and fetching the pattern buffer

Remember that the pattern buffer is used to make the first item that matches the pattern be the current item. In general, to match the current menu item, your application program inserts characters into the pattern buffer that have been
passed to the menu driver from the user's data entry. As an alternative, you can insert characters into the pattern buffer with the function set_menu_pattern.

SYNOPSIS

   int set_menu_pattern (menu, pattern)
   MENU  menu;
   char  pattern;
   

   char  menu_pattern (menu)
   MENU  menu;

Function set_menu_pattern first clears the pattern buffer and then adds the characters in pattern to the buffer until pattern is exhausted. The function next tries to find the first item that matches the pattern. If it does not find a complete match, the pattern buffer is cleared and the current item does not change. If pattern is the null string (""), the pattern buffer is simply cleared. The pattern buffer is automatically cleared whenever

• each successful scrolling or item navigation operation is completed (in other words, whenever the top or current item changes)

• a menu is created by new_menu

• the items associated with a menu are changed by set_menu_items

E_SYSTEM_ERROR

system error

E_BAD_ARGUMENT

NULL menu pointer or NULL pattern pointer

E_NO_MATCH

complete match failed

To determine if your user has entered data that matches an item, you might write a routine that uses set_menu_pattern, as follows:

   int find_match (m, newpattern)  /* returns TRUE or
       FALSE */
   MENU * m;
   char * newpattern;
   {
          return set_menu_pattern(m, newpattern) == E_OK;
   }