# Using a regex for set_io_pin_constraint -names

Tool: Pin Placer

Subcategory: Usage question

## Conversation

### oharboe
How can I get a list of the names of the pins, such that I can pass in a list of names to set_io_pin_constraint that match a regex?

Something like:

```
set_io_pin_constraint ... -names [lsearch -all -inline $pins $regex]
```

Answering myself..

This will do it:

```
proc match_pins { regex } {
    set pins {}
    foreach pin [sta::find_port_pins_matching $regex 1 0] {
        lappend pins [get_property $pin name]
    }
    return $pins
}

set_io_pin_constraint -region top:* -pin_names [match_pins someregex]
```


### maliberty
See discussion in https://github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD/pull/2839

### maliberty
The point being there isn't a default mechanism right now but rather a discussion of how best to do it.  get_pins will return a list of pins objects rather than names.  You could convert them to names or you could use the odb APIs to traverse the db yourself.

### oharboe
This will do it:

```
set_io_pin_constraint ... -names [sta::find_port_pins_matching $regex 1 0]
```



### maliberty
What do you mean by "verilog pin names"?  Those look ok to me for instance pins

### maliberty
Perhaps you want get_ports?  I would call those port names as Verilog includes the instance pins as well.