Parsing a text string 1

[chellweg]

i am retrieving data from a field in my database, but want to strip off the text portion at the end. The first half is dates, and that is all I care about. An example of one of the strings is:

02-18-2005 - 02-19-2005 - Rale

All I want to use out of it is:

02-18-2005 - 02-19-2005

What is the easiest way to extract the date portion of the field to use.

 

[Sheco]

Assuming that your dates are always the same number of characters you can just take the leftmost 23 characters.

02-18-2005 - 02-19-2005
12345678901234567890123

So like this:
MyNewValue = Left(MyOldValue, 23)

 

[Sheco]

well that would have looked better if i put it in a code tag so the letter will line up in courier font.

02-18-2005 - 02-19-2005
12345678901234567890123

Ok, now it makes more sense.

 

[bslintx]

Hi chellweg,


Since it is a string data and not a date try manipulating it using the Left function


' only include the first 23 char of this string
' you need to assign it to a variable to work
<%

strDate = Left("02-18-2005 - 02-19-2005 - Rale",23)

response.write strDate
' result 02-18-2005 - 02-19-2005


Hope this is what is you needed if not please elaborate more

BSL

%>

 

[bslintx]

Sorry Sheco...you posted right before me ;-)

BSL

 

[Sheco]

I like yours better anyway where you actually used his value instead of silly variable like MyNewValue and MyOldValue.

 

[fhlee]

Hi,
Just offering an alternative method which I think may be more 'flexible'.
------
dim vsString, vasParts
dim vdDate1, vdDate2

vsString = "02-18-2005 - 02-19-2005 - Rale"
vasParts = split( vsString, " - " )

vsDate1 = vasParts(0)
vsDate2 = vasParts(1)
------
However, it will be better to use the , or ; as separator instead of - as the - is also separators within the date fields.

Just an alternative perspective and can be useful if the format/length of the vsString cannot be determined (ie, 2-18-05 instead of 02-18-2005).

regards,
- Joseph
==============

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

 

[Tarwn]

My suggestion would be to just strip off everything after the last dash, allows flexibility and cheaper then creating an array:

Dim myVar 'heh
myVar = "02-18-2005 - 02-19-2005 - Rale"

'alter it to drop right side
myVar = Left(myVar,InStrRev(myVar,"-") - 1)

Additionally, to polish up BSL's, you could split on " - " (space-dash-space in case it's hard to read). That wshould then give you an array of three elements and you can safely play with the first two seperatly (bonnus).

-T

 

[onpnt]

regex hehe

might degrade perfomance for this task though

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