RE: Removing punctuation (not using arrays)

 **********************************************************************     
 * Procedure   - #standardize                                         *     
 * Description - Receive a character string and convert any special   *     
 *               characters to acceptable characters.                 *     
 *               Note: changeFrom / changeTo strings must be in the   *     
 *                     matching order so that the correct characters  *     
 *                     are changed to their correct conterparts.      *     
 * Input       - inString - string to be manipulated                  *     
 *             - changeFrom - change from this character              *     
 *             - changeTo - change to this character                  *     
 * Output      - outString                                            *     
 **********************************************************************     
p #standardize    b                   export                                
                                                                            
d #standardize    pi          1024a                                         
d inString                    1024a   const                                 
d changeFrom                  1024a   const                                 
d changeTo                    1024a   const                                 
                                                                            
 /free                                                                      
                                                                      
  return   %xlate( changeFrom : changeTo : inString );                
                                                                      
 /end-free                                                            
                                                                      
p #standardize    e                                                   
 **********************************************************************         
                                                             


If you wanted to get rid of extra spacing you could always do this:

Eval  pos = %scan('  ': string)                         
DOW   pos > 0                                          
Eval  string = %Replace(' ' : string : pos : 1)         
Eval  pos = %scan('  ': string)                         
Enddo