STRTRAN Function
Syntax
Arguments
- characterCharacter
The character string to search.
- substringCharacter
The string to find in the Input_String.
- replacementCharacter
Default = "" (NULL). The string that replaces the substring.
- start_posNumeric
Default = 1. Specifies which (and subsequent) occurrences will be replaced. A value N for the optional Start_Position begins the replacement at the N th occurrence of substring.
- occurrencesNumeric
Default = All. Specifies the maximum number of occurrences of substring to replace with replacement.
- everyNumeric
Default = 1. Specifies the interval between replacements.
Returns
- Output_StringCharacter
Returns the character string produced by the replacement operation.
Description
Replaces each occurrence of a string with another.
Discussion
STRTRAN() replaces every occurrence of substring in 'character' with a replacement.
? strtran("The Road Not Traveled", "Traveled", "Paved") = "The Road Not Paved" ? strtran("I much prefer dogs", "dogs", "cats") = "I much prefer cats"
You can use STRTRAN() to remove a specific substring from anywhere within another string. For example, to index a field containing titles, without the article "The", you might use the following expression:
' If EVENT stores "The Kentucky Derby", ' removes the word "The", resulting in "Kentucky Derby" strtran(EVENT, "The ", "")
This then places "Kentucky Derby" near the other events starting with "K" instead of with the events starting with "T".
Typically, an article (i.e., "a", "an", or "the") is capitalized only when it occurs at the start of a title. If so, then capitalizing it within the substring causes the function to remove only the first occurrence. You can use a similar expression to remove "A"s and other articles at the start of character values.
The following example replaces every second letter "e" in the search string.
dim string as C string = "this is the number one replacement function" ? stritran(string, "e", "|", 1, 99, 2) = "this is th| number on| replac|ment function"
Limitations
The substring argument is case sensitive.
See Also