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String Functions

Introduction

When retrieving a value from a variable using @GET or in an inline variable, you can perform string operations on the contents. These are specified by chaining together string actions using colons after the variable name or using FORMAT in @GET.

For example, to retrieve uppercase version of the third field in a record separated by slashes:
<@GET NAME="RECORD:WORD(3,/):UPCASE()">

Manipulation

UPCASE()
Returns the contents of the variable in uppercase

DOWNCASE()
Returns the contents of the variable in lowercase

ESCAPEURL()
Replaces spaces with plus signs and URL-escapes all HTTP-significant characters

UNESCAPEURL()
The reverse of ESCAPEURL

ESCAPECHARS()
Returns the contents of the variable with HTML-significant characters replaced by their entities

UNESCAPECHARS()
The reverse of ESCAPECHARS

REVERSE()
Returns the characters in the variable in reverse order

REPLACE(string,string)
Replaces all occurences of the first string with the second

REPEAT(expr)
Repeats the contents of the variable the specified number of times

C2X()
Converts a sequence of characters to a sequence of hexadecimal pairs of the ASCII values

D2X()
Converts a decimal number to a hexadecimal number

ROMAN()
Converts an integer to a roman numeral

RANDOM()
Returns a random number between zero and one less than the value passed

Substring Extraction

BEFORE(string)
Returns the part of the variable before the first occurence of the specified string

AFTER(string)
Returns the part of the variable after the first occurence of the specified string

LEFT(expr)
Returns the number of characters specified from the left of the variable. A negative value will specify the number of characters to miss from the right.

RIGHT(expr)
Returns the number of characters specified from the right of the variable. A negative value will specify the number of characters to miss from the left.

MID(expr,expr)
Returns the number of characters specified by the second expression from the position specified by the first. If the first is negative the start position is measured from the end of the string

REMOVENOTOF(string)
Returns the contents of the variable with every occurence of every character not in the string removed

PADLEFT(expr,string)
Returns the contents of the variable padded on the left with repetitions of the contents of string until it is at least as long as the value given by the expression. If string is not specified, spaces are used

PADRIGHT(expr,string)
As PADLEFT, but on the right side

Date Handling

DATETODAYNUM()
Returns the day number of a date supplied in YYYY-MM-DD format so it can be used in mathematical expressions

DAYNUMTODATE()
Converts a day number to a date in the format YYYY-MM-DD

DAYOFWEEK()
Returns the day of week value for a date in the format YYYY-MM-DD with Monday=1, Sunday=7

Enquiry

LENGTH()
Returns the number of characters in the variable

FREQ(string)
Returns the number of times the string occurs in the variable

Word Extraction

WORD(expr)(expr,string)
Returns the word at the specified position. If the expression is negative the position is counted from the right. The word separator is a space unless a string is specified

WORDS()(string)
Returns the number of words in the variable. The word separator is a space unless a string is specified

WORDSPAN(expr,expr)(expr,expr,string)
Returns the words indexed from the first expression to the second expression. If either expression is negative the position is counted from the right. The word separator is a space unless a string is specified

Maths

EVAL()
Evaluates the contents of the variable as a mathematical expression

Last updated 2003-02-14