stritran help

[djldc]

I am trying to change several choices from a multi-list box to produce this:
Right Hip, Left Knee, Left Foot and Right Hand

this:
stritran(Var->vLocation,crlf(),", ") produces this:
Right Hip, Left Knee, Left Foot, Right Hand,

and this:
stritran(vLocation,","," and",w_count(vLocation,", ")-1,1) produces this:
Right Hip
Left Knee
Left Foot
Right Hand

I thought the second example would work, so not sure what I'm doing wrong. Thanks!

Don

[MikeC]

Re: stritran help

Don,

Just did a quick look at list processing functions and maybe crlf_to_comma would work for you.

http://support.alphasoftware.com/alp...TO_COMMA().htm

I'll look a bit more as am imagining there are many ways to accomplish your need.

Rtrim() should do it also to get rid of the trailing comma.

http://support.alphasoftware.com/alp...ns/RTRIM().htm

[Tim Kiebert]

Re: stritran help

if(w_count(crlf_to_comma(vLocation),",")>1,strtran(stuff(crlf_to_comma(vLocation),at(",",crlf_to_comma(vLocation),-1),1," and "),",",", "),crlf_to_comma(vLocation))

[G Gabriel]

Re: stritran help

Let's make life simple:
tagged_pattern("1,2,3,4","1, 2, 3and 4",crlf_to_comma(vLocation))

[Tim Kiebert]

Re: stritran help

Gabe,

would tagged_pattern be able to handle a variable number of elements. In Don's first post he mentioned that the input is from a multi-list box so I'm thinking the number of elements isn't fixed.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: stritran help

Tim, I think you've got a good point. The 'devil is in the details', isn't it?

[MikeC]

Re: stritran help

:D many ways.

Wondering why this was not used seeing as he had almost produced what he wanted with

stritran(Var->vLocation,crlf(),", ") produces this:
Right Hip, Left Knee, Left Foot, Right Hand,

Except that it left the trailing comma.

So would think...

Rtrim(stritran(Var->vLocation,crlf(),", "),"," )

would produce this:
Right Hip, Left Knee, Left Foot, Right Hand

Guess we'll have to wait and see which Don needs to use.

[Steve Andrews]

Re: stritran help

When I ran into a similar need, I reversed the string, changed the first comma to "dna " and reversed it back. That allowed me to change only the last comma in the string.

cStr = "Right Hip, Left Knee, Left Foot, Right Hand"

cStr = *reverse(strtran(*reverse(cStr),",","dna ",1,1))

?cStr
= "Right Hip, Left Knee, Left Foot and Right Hand"

My 2 cents,
Steve

[djldc]

Re: stritran help

Thanks to all for your help. Here is what I found:

I went with Tim Kiebert's code:
if(w_count(crlf_to_comma(vLocation),",")>1,strtran(stuff(crlf_to_comma(vLocation),at(",",crlf_to_comma(vLocation),-1),1," and "),",",", "),crlf_to_comma(vLocation))
which produced the desired result: Left Hand, Right Elbow and Left Elbow

Gabe's code:
tagged_pattern("1,2,3,4","1, 2, 3and 4",crlf_to_comma(vLocation))
produced this: Right Elbow, Left Elbow, Left Handand
... would work if I always chose 4 from the list.

MikeC's code:
Rtrim(stritran(Var->vLocation,crlf(),", "),"," )
produced this: Left Hand, Right Elbow, Left Elbow
... which could easily work. I was looking for a way to say "AND" the last item chosen (instead of the comma). The 'devil is in the details'

Steve Andrew's code:
*reverse(strtran(*reverse(cStr),",","dna ",1,1)) produced this for me:
Left Hand
Right Elbow
Left Elbow
Not sure what I did wrong to produce these results.

Thanks again to all. I am sure I would not be able to accomplish this without help from this forum.

[Al Buchholz]

Re: stritran help

I am trying to change several choices from a multi-list box to produce this:
Right Hip, Left Knee, Left Foot and Right Hand

I live with an English teacher.

Wouldn't the correct grammatic form be: Right Hip, Left Knee, Left Foot, and Right Hand

[MikeC]

Re: stritran help

Al,

Wow! And I think that I date myself with older ways!!! :D

The rule used to be the way you use... but I remember when that rule was sort of dropped about 35 or so years ago back when I was I believe in 7th grade!


----yeah I know--my kids are waiting for my darn memory to go too!!

[Al Buchholz]

Re: stritran help

Al,

Wow! And I think that I date myself with older ways!!! :D

The rule used to be the way you use... but I remember when that rule was sort of dropped about 35 or so years ago back when I was I believe in 7th grade!

It may have been dropped at your school, but it wasn't dropped at my wife's classroom today..

You're not in Hortonville are you? Are the teachers there still on strike??? (35 years ago...) ;)

[G Gabriel]

Re: stritran help

Tim:

would tagged_pattern be able to handle a variable number of elements.

No.
It would, with a script though.

Mike:

Rtrim(stritran(Var->vLocation,crlf(),", "),"," )

will eleminate the trailing comma, but does not insert "and".

Steve:

Don is starting with a crlf list.

[MikeC]

Re: stritran help

Al,

There ya go--makes sense in seeing as a large part my early schooling was in a larger city as opposed to a rural area...seems like cities and generally non-rural areas try to change so many things that were just fine without being changed. Some caught on and others didn't .

But guess both ways are "correct" now-a-days. Sort of like you can no longer say "Ain't ain't a word because ain't ain't in the dictionary" like many people used to iterate when I was younger...some things should not change.

===========================
Gabe,

Yeah I realized I missed the boat on the "and"--simply did not see it!! :)

[Steve Andrews]

Re: stritran help

Steve Andrew's code:
*reverse(strtran(*reverse(cStr),",","dna ",1,1)) produced this for me:
Left Hand
Right Elbow
Left Elbow
Not sure what I did wrong to produce these results.

Don,

My code was intended for a comma-delimited list. Apparently, you used my expression with a CRLF-delimited list. An expansion of my expression which would take a CRLF-delimited list and produce the desired string would be:

?cStr
= Right Hip
 Left Knee
 Left Foot
 Right Hand

cStr = *reverse(strtran(*reverse(strtran(cStr,crlf(),",")),",","dna ",1,1))

?cStr
= "Right Hip, Left Knee, Left Foot and Right Hand"

Al,

If it would be correct to say "A, B, C, and D" that is completely new to me. It's definitely not the way I was taught nor the way I see it in publications. But things change over times.