21.15.2.3 Special Characters ([ ], { }, and \)

Square brackets ([ ]) are part of the command syntax to access ports, pins and clocks. In cases where these netlist objects names themselves contain square brackets (for example, buses), you must either enclose the names with curly brackets ({}) or precede the open and closed square brackets ([ ]) characters with a backslash (\). If you do not do this, the tool displays an error message.

For example:

create_clock -period 3 clk\[0\]

set_max_delay 1.5 -from [get_pins ff1\[5\]:CLK] -to [get_clocks {clk[0]}]

Although not necessary, Microchip recommends the use of curly brackets around the names, as shown in the following example:

set_false_path –from {data1} –to [get_pins {reg1:D}]

In any case, the use of the curly bracket is mandatory when you have to provide more than one name. For example:

set_false_path –from {data3 data4} –to [get_pins {reg2:D reg5:D}]