split field

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: split field

Jim,
Now you have me curious



How did you get the genie to filter out these titles? And what will you do about the 'period' that most titles include?

I think you know more than you are letting on!

Robin,

That code would have been generated by the "Break a Name into its parts" which did not work for Jim. What would (and apparently did) work was the "Break a Field into its parts". To deal with titles with periods, etc. would require, at the very least, a modified version of the code generated by "Break a Name into its parts". With complex names the expression required can get extremely complex, not something a genie can do on its own.

Ray Lyons

[Beltronics]

Re: split field

Ray
I used that expression but had to restore my database after it was done. It not only removed the blank in front of the first name but it removed all the blanks in the name.
For example. Joseph Ray became JosephRay and Mary Anne Helen became MaryAnneHelen

[Beltronics]

Re: split field

Robin
In my case there were no titles and no periods so I wasn't really worried about those in what the genie wrote.
Know more than I'm letting on? Well, I used to be pretty proficient as an amateur with Alpha but I haven't touched it since I retired 10 years ago. That's why I'm still using V9 and I've forgotten so much I find myself lost doing things I used to be able to do.

You didn't ask for this but: I started with Alpha way back in the beginning; then upgraded up to V9 from V1. I never developed for anyone but myself. I had three businesses and used it in different formats for all three. But, Alpha is really designed for developers who progress along with upgrades, etc. Alpha is not friendly to users who simply want to continue using a program as they don't support older versions with any upgrades. I've contacted them because I was hoping to keep up with newer versions but at the price you have to pay as a developer; it's not economical when you no longer need to "develop" but simply to keep using. Oh, heck; you didn't ask for all this!!!!

[MoGrace]

Re: split field

Hi Jim,
Sounds like we are in the same boat with the desktop. It makes little sense to me to move to a yearly subscription just to keep going on a program I have already purchased.

As for splitting your name into separate fields, the word() function ought to do it. If you are getting a leading blank for the first name field, you can modify the code the genie creates by wrapping it with ltrim().

lastname = word(fullname, 1,",")
firstname = ltrim(word(fullname,2,","))

That should leave a last name like De Nova intact as well as a first name like Mary Jane.

You might even try including the trailing space with the comma as the delimiter and leave off the ltrim() for the first name.

lastname = word(fullname, 1,", ")

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: split field

Ray
I used that expression but had to restore my database after it was done. It not only removed the blank in front of the first name but it removed all the blanks in the name.
For example. Joseph Ray became JosephRay and Mary Anne Helen became MaryAnneHelen

My bad--sorry. I was trying to limit you to nothing more than what the Genie would generate, which sometimes is the easiest way to do something, and sometimes it is not. What Robin has given you will solve your problem (I presume). So would a simple Ltrim() on the first name field the Genie produced with Break Field into its Parts.

Or you could modify the first name expression the Genie produced for Breaking a field into parts by replacing the RED "1" in the code below withe a "2".

if(AT(",", FULLNAME, 1)>0,SUBSTR(FULLNAME, AT(",", FULLNAME, 1)[COLOR="#FF0000"][SIZE=5][B]+1[/B][/SIZE][/COLOR], (AT(",", FULLNAME, 2)-AT(",", FULLNAME, 1))-1),"")

That is, with this:

if(AT(",", FULLNAME, 1)>0,SUBSTR(FULLNAME, AT(",", FULLNAME, 1)+2, (AT(",", FULLNAME, 2)-AT(",", FULLNAME, 1))-1),"")

But my guess is that is just too confusing!

Ray Lyons

[Beltronics]

Re: split field

Thanks to everyone. The Ltrim funtion worked perfectly. I chose not to combine the date since I deal with American and European dates all the time so having it split works just as well for me. I don't use dates in calculations in this dbase anyway.