How to replace text in a string

Tony Marston - 6th June 2000

The following proc will replace all occurrences of 'X' with 'Y' in a string. Note that 'X' and 'Y' do not have to have the same lengths, and that 'Y' could even be null.

The calling sequence is:

call EXAMINE_REPLACE(string, "X", "Y")

Here is the code for the proc itself:-

;-----------------------------------------------------------------------
; examine STRING replacing "X" with "Y"
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------
params
   string  pio_string_in   : INOUT
   string  pi_old_text     : IN
   string  pi_new_text     : IN
endparams
variables
   string  lv_input_area, lv_hold, lv_output_area
   numeric lv_old_text_len
endvariables

lv_input_area = pio_string_in              ; move to work area
length pi_old_text
lv_old_text_len = $result                  ; store length of old text

while (lv_input_area != "")                ; repeat until empty
   scan lv_input_area, pi_old_text         ; look for old_text
   if ($result < 1)                    ; not found
       lv_hold = lv_input_area             ; use whole string
       lv_input_area = ""                  ; nothing left
   else                                ; found
       $result = $result -1                ; backspace over old text
       lv_hold = lv_input_area[1:$result]  ; extract pre-old text
       lv_hold = "%%lv_hold%%pi_new_text"  ; append new text
       $result = $result + lv_old_text_len ; add length of old text
       $result = $result +1                ; skip over old text
       lv_input_area = lv_input_area[$result]  ; drop pre-old text
   endif
   lv_output_area = "%%lv_output_area%%lv_hold"
endwhile

pio_string_in = lv_output_area             ; replace with adjusted string

return(0)

;-----------------------------------------------------------------------
; Name:            EXAMINE_REPLACE
;
; Author:          Tony Marston
;
; Date:            20-06-99
;
; Current Version: 1.0.0
;
; Description:     Examine STRING replacing all occurrences of
;                  old_text with new_text
;
; Input Parameters:    STRING      - string containing old_text
;                      pi_old_text - to be replaced with new_text
;                      pi_new_text - replacement for old_text
;
; Output Parameters:   STRING
;
; Update History:
; Date     Updated By      Details
;

Tony Marston
6th June 2000

mailto:tony@tonymarston.net
mailto:TonyMarston@hotmail.com
http://www.tonymarston.net

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