Re: Removing punctuation (not using arrays)

On Tue, 14 Jan 2003, Tracy Ball wrote:
>
> If I have this field value "RABBIT PACK, 6PC. WINE TOOL KIT", is there a
> better method of removing the comma and period characters and discarding
> the extra spaces created without using an array routine of reading one
> byte at a time, translating the unwanted characters to "blanks" and then
> reloading the field via array positions?

Instead of reading it one byte at a time, you COULD use the %scan BIF
(or SCAN op-code) to find each punctuation character... the down-side to
this is that it has to search the entire string over and over for each
punctuation symbol you want to remove, which could end up being a
performance issue (especially if the string is very large)

Still, if this interests you, try searching the archives for the
%scan and %replace BIFs... I'm sure you'd find an example.

>
> Can I use the %xlate and %trim %bifs to shorten this task?  I don't have
> REXX, so that is not an option.
>

The BIFs that I would use would actually be %subst and %replace.   I would
still loop through every character, and use %replace to remove the
characters that I don't want.

Here's some sample code that illustrates how I'd do it:

     D x               S             10I 0
     D len             S             10I 0
     D string          s            100A

     c                   eval      string = '"RABBIT PACK, 6PC. WINE TOOL KIT"'
     c                   eval      len = %len(%trimr(string))
     c                   eval      x = 1

     c                   dow       x <= len

     c                   if        %subst(string:x:1) = '.'
     c                               or %subst(string:x:1) = ','
     c                               or %subst(string:x:1) = ';'
     c                               or %subst(string:x:1) = '"'
     c                   eval      string = %replace('': string: x: 1)
     c                   else
     c                   eval      x = x + 1
     c                   endif

     c                   enddo

     c                   eval      *inlr = *on


Note that it doesn't advance to the next position unless no %replace
was necessary.  This is because the %replace moved all of the characters
to the left one space, so you'll already be on the next position.

Hope this is helpful.