Splitting field

[Bill Griffin]

Hello all,

I have a field whic continas the following:
A123B2332C43335D12E13F1234G84855H1234I8764J123456K123L1276M

I want to get the numeric portions if the sting into 12 differnt fields. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Bill

[Jim Chapman]

RE: Splitting field

Hello Bill,

This really shouldn't be much of a problem, Alpha 5 has many built in functions that you can use to parse out data fields like this, HOWEVER,

are all the fields identical in terms of structure, ie: do they contain the same number of alpha characters before the numerical characters, etc. If this is the case it will be easy, if not,......... it still shouldn't be to hard as long as the alpha characters always seperate the numerical characters.

Jim

[Bill Griffin]

RE: Splitting field

There is one alpha character than a group of numeric characters (unknown length, than another alpha character, another group of numerics. The alpha characters are never the same. This data is coming from an old unix system where they used the alpha characters as separtors for each month a==jan b= feb etc.

[forskare]

RE: Splitting field

I take it you want to break at the beginning of each aplha character?

kenn

[Bill Griffin]

RE: Splitting field

Yes, Each alpha character would be discared leaving only the numeric portions

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Splitting field

Bill, here's a wild and crazy idea. Success depends entirely on verifying that the source data's structure is fixed, and assumes that the alpha separator is itself only one char wide.

How about converting this into comma delimited text?

Strip the leading alpha char.
Strip the trailing alpha char.
Examine each char in the string and if its ascii value falls in the alpha char range, convert the alpha char to a comma.

Then import the darn thing.

The receiving file should be structured to receive numeric data... not char strings.

-- tom

[Jim Chapman]

RE: Splitting field

Hello Bill,

Attached is a short script that does what you want. I don't know any of the names for your table, fields, etc and if you want to run this selectively or step through an entire table at once, but the attached script should get you going. It is run off a form called 'Parse' with a field named 'Field_2' that contains your sample data. This script just parses a single instance of your data and displays it in a dialog box.

Good luck,

Jim

[Jim Chapman]

RE: Splitting field

Bill,

I failed to mention in my last reply to you that I arbitrarily choose a value of 30 for the array that contains the parsed data. Again without knowing more about your data I don't know if this is sufficient. You could easily parse through the data to determine before hand how big the array needs to be, but for a simple defined script it is quicker and functional to 'waste' a little memory.

Jim

[Bill Griffin]

RE: Splitting field

Thanks Jim. I'll give it a shot and let you know how I make out.

Thanks again.

[Bill Griffin]

RE: Splitting field

Jim,
A couple of questions concerning the script.

First the script works great. I would like to modify it to not display the results n the dialog box (can I just remove the line ui_get_list_array("Parsed Field",1,"vholding")) and be able to pull each of the elements of the array to display on a form.

Thanks for your help
Bill

[Jim Chapman]

RE: Splitting field

Hi Bill,

>>(can I just remove the line ui_get_list_array("Parsed Field",1,"vholding")) and be able to pull each of the elements of the array to display on a form.

[Bill Griffin]

RE: Splitting field

Jim,

I Dimmed vholding as a shared variable and have access to it from the form, but am having a hell of a time finding doumentation on displaying the individual elements. Can you once again point me in the right direction.

Thanks
Bill

[Jim Chapman]

RE: Splitting field

Hello Bill,

I don't know what you are trying to do with the data. You say 'display it'. Where are you trying to display it? Lets say you have placed a character variable on your form. I'll call it vField1. At the end of the routine if you wanted to display the first array element in this variable you'd do something like this:

parentform:vField1.text = vholding[1]
parentform:vField1.refresh()

Now you should see the first array element value displayed on the form.

Jim

[Bill Griffin]

RE: Splitting field

Jim,

Thanks for all of your help. Everything is working great.

Bill