Ken:

Some time ago, I had to parse a string based on a character delimiter.  Appended is the function using your test code.  4GL doesn't do these functions real well since the strings passed are fixed length.

I have a number of string related 4GL functions.  Should I add a FAQ to this forum?

Regards,


Ed


MAIN
DEFINE
   tmp_string CHAR(20),
   ret_string CHAR(10),
   cnt SMALLINT

LET cnt = 1
LET tmp_string = "EN;TJ;KI"
# while loop breaks at the 4th loop
WHILE cnt > 0
   CALL parse_str(";", cnt, tmp_string) RETURNING ret_string, cnt
END WHILE

END MAIN

# This function searches string for an instance of char_delim
# starting at position cnt and returns the string ending at the next
# char_delim or the end of string
FUNCTION parse_str(char_delim, cnt, string)
DEFINE
   char_delim CHAR(1),   # character delimiter
   cnt SMALLINT,         # postion in string to start counting
   string CHAR(300),     # string to search
   ret_string CHAR(40),  # string returned
   i,                    # index
   x,                    # counter
   string_len SMALLINT   # string length

   LET string_len = LENGTH(string)

   IF string_len = 0 # got a null string
   THEN
     RETURN "",0
   END IF

   IF string[cnt] = char_delim
   THEN
      LET cnt = cnt + 1 # get off the delimiter
   END IF
   IF cnt > string_len
   THEN # return when the end of the string is reached
     RETURN "",0
   END IF

   LET x = 1
   FOR i = cnt TO string_len
      IF string[i] = char_delim
      THEN
         EXIT FOR
      END IF
      LET ret_string[x] = string[i]  # save a character
      LET x = x + 1
   END FOR

   LET cnt = i # return the positon ended
   RETURN ret_string, cnt
END FUNCTION

Ed,

Thanks for the response.

That would be a great idea. You guys know more about the tricks of informix than I do at this point in time.