Re: having to find an inv. # in a comment field :(

wow, what a mess.

I don't see a foolproof way, but try something like this.    I think
this will get you all of the examples you list EXCEPT for the one
listing 3 separated by commas.

1. move description to a variable length workfield (larger than the original)

2. %scan and %replace all instances of ' AND ' or ' & ' with 'INV#'

3. %scan and %replace all spaces with #

4. scan for 'INV'  tick through the rest of the description byte by
byte until you come apon a '#X' or '#0' through '#9'   you have now
found the first byte of your invoice.

5. continue ticking till you find another #.  this is the end of your
invoice number.

6. clear out these spaces from # to # and repeat steps 4 and 5. until
end of string reached.

On 1/27/06, steema@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <steema@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Well this is the picture. Don't ask why, but we get some info
> from abroad. They put invoice numbers in a comment field. The comment
> field can have normal comment info (not invoice number) but when there is
> the invoice there, I need to put this in some other work file.
>
> The len. of this comment field is 40.
>
> It is not uniform. The ways it is there are:
>
> INVOICE# XKC03J143L
> INVOICE # XTG05K023L
> INVOICE #   XSC06A016L
> INV# XKC03G091L
> INV. XTC05L053L
> INV 5400960
> INVOICES XTC05F008L AND XTC05F012L (in this case, I want to write 2 records)
> INVOICE XTC05F009L
> INVOICE #'S 2107071, 2107073 & 2107079
> INVOICE #'S XSC04H008L & XTC04H021L
>
> IN addition, there are several spelling mistakes on the word Invoice, but
> these are not my concern ( I was thinking how to take the file, run it in
> Microsoft spell check, perhaps someone has done this?).
>
> Any thoughts on the coding would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Steve
>
> INVOICES SHIPPED AFTER COST CHANGE (an example of a real comment)
>
>
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