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Help with an expression for uppercase characters

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    Help with an expression for uppercase characters

    Hi,

    I have some data were the field which contains the company name contains uppercase characters (usually words which are 3 characters long) - I am trying to write a query which will find those records (eg Smith OIL & GAS Company Limited).

    I'm not having much success as the words could be anywhere within the field, is there an expression which will find uppercase characters within a field.

    Thank you

    Judith
    Last edited by Judith; 08-11-2016, 06:57 AM.

    #2
    Re: Help with an expression for uppercase characters

    upper("ibm") -> "IBM"

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Help with an expression for uppercase characters

      I think you need a custom function whose result could be used to select records.

      Code:
      FUNCTION word_is_upper AS L (string AS C )
      	word_is_upper = .F. 'default return value
      	sorted_words = keywords(string)
      	wd_list = strtran(sorted_words," ",crlf())
      	for each foo in wd_list
      		if foo.value == upper(foo.value)
      			word_is_upper = .T. 'found a word in all caps
      			exit for 'no reason to keep checking
      		end if		
      	next
      END FUNCTION
      Modified slightly and replaced the original suggestion to improve the speed. Probably not necessary for smaller amounts of records and short strings but still worthwhile. The keywords() function eliminates any duplicate words. It also sorts any words with at least an initial capital to the start of the list.
      Last edited by Stan Mathews; 08-11-2016, 08:56 AM.
      There can be only one.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Help with an expression for uppercase characters

        Then again, if all you really want is to normalize the field values so that they consist of only words with initial capitals, just run an update operation. You could add a field and populate it with the new value first if you want to see what would result.

        field_value = "Smith OIL & GAS Company Limited"

        ? w_upper(lower(field_value))
        = "Smith Oil & Gas Company Limited"
        There can be only one.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Help with an expression for uppercase characters

          That would be great Stan, but in some instances it's correct to have uppercase letters as in ABC Company for instance, I just wanted to be able to query the records to lessen the amount I need to look through to find words like LEE, GAS, OIL, IAN, LOW, DAY

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Help with an expression for uppercase characters

            The function provided, used in a filter, will limit the record selection to only those records with at least one all capitalized word.

            After saving the function to your database (attached here for importing if that's easier for you) the you can use it in a filter like

            word_is_upper(your_field_name)
            Attached Files
            There can be only one.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Help with an expression for uppercase characters

              Code:
              x="the abc company"
              ?regex_grep(x,"[A-Z]","$(count)")<>""
              = .F.
              
              x="The ABC Company"
              ?regex_grep(x,"[A-Z]","$(count)")<>""
              = .T.
              
              x="Smith OIL & GAS Company Limited"
              ?regex_grep(x,"[A-Z]","$(count)")<>""
              = .T.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Help with an expression for uppercase characters

                here is another one:
                Code:
                FUNCTION upperWord AS L (name AS C )
                	'debug(1)
                	dim n as n = 0
                	dim position as n = 0
                	dim position_old as n = 0
                	for i = 1 to len(name) 
                		if position > 0 then 
                		position_old = position
                		end if 
                			if asc(substr(name,i,1)) > 64 .AND. asc(substr(name,i,1)) < 91 then
                				position = i
                				if position = position_old + 1 then
                					n = n+1
                				end if
                			end if
                		
                		next
                		if n >= 3 then
                			upperWord = .t.
                			else
                			upperword = .f.
                		end if
                END FUNCTION
                thanks for reading

                gandhi

                version 11 3381 - 4096
                mysql backend
                http://www.alphawebprogramming.blogspot.com
                [email protected]
                Skype:[email protected]
                1 914 924 5171

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Help with an expression for uppercase characters

                  I felt challenged to get this into a single statement and it looks like nw_lower() can do the trick. Just filter the records using:

                  Code:
                  strequal(nw_lower(fieldname),fieldname,.f.,.t.)=.f.
                  for example:

                  Code:
                  test = "The BIG oil company"
                  ?strequal(nw_lower(test),test,.f.,.t.)
                  = .F.
                  This compare the 2 lines:

                  Code:
                  The BIG oil company
                  The Big oil company

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Help with an expression for uppercase characters

                    Or, you could do this (simpler):
                    Code:
                    x="the abc company"
                    ?regex_match(x,".*[A-Z]+.*")
                    = .F.
                    
                    x="the ABC company"
                    ?regex_match(x,".*[A-Z]+.*")
                    = .T.
                    
                    x="Smith OIL & GAS Company Limited"
                    ?regex_match(x,".*[A-Z]+.*")
                    = .T.
                    
                    x="ABC"
                    ?regex_match(x,".*[A-Z]+.*")
                    = .T.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Help with an expression for uppercase characters

                      Code:
                      FUNCTION upperWord AS L (name AS C )
                      	'debug(1)
                      	dim n as n = 0
                      	dim position as n = 0
                      	dim position_old as n = 0
                      	for i = 1 to len(name) 
                      		if position > 0 then 
                      		position_old = position
                      		end if 
                      			if asc(substr(name,i,1)) > 64 .AND. asc(substr(name,i,1)) < 91 then
                      				position = i
                      				if position = position_old + 1 then
                      					n = n+1
                                                       else
                                                       n = 1
                      				end if
                      			end if
                      		    if n = 3 then
                                             exit for
                                          end if
                      		next
                      		if n >= 3 then
                      			upperWord = .t.
                      			else
                      			upperword = .f.
                      		end if
                      END FUNCTION
                      the original code i posted will fail in conditions like
                      "SUn OIl COrporation" but will work any other combination this corrected code will pick that up too.
                      thanks for reading

                      gandhi

                      version 11 3381 - 4096
                      mysql backend
                      http://www.alphawebprogramming.blogspot.com
                      [email protected]
                      Skype:[email protected]
                      1 914 924 5171

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Help with an expression for uppercase characters

                        Thank you everyone for your help, I have gone with Jon Moody's single statement filter expression.

                        Comment

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