Spliting Strings - Stage Variable or Routine

[danddmrs]

I put this in a resolved topic and probably shouldn't have.

I have a 75 byte field that needs to be split into 3 smaller fields, 25 bytes each. Business rules require that none of the words be split in the middle and that each field begin with a character other than space .

Input
THE HAPPENING STUDIO OF HAIR DESIGN AND GREAT MAKEOVERS INC

Output
THE HAPPENING STUDIO OF
HAIR DESIGN AND GREAT
MAKEOVERS INC

I was able to do this in COBOL using PERFORM VARYING logic. Do I need to set up a Routine to do the same thing using FOR LOOP logic or can this be done within the Transformer using FORMAT or maybe using Stage Variables?

Thanks.
Richard Schneider

[ray.wurlod]

Welcome aboard. :D

You can use Fmt(InLink.TheString, "25T")
The "T" format is "text" - it breaks on whole words. The Fmt() function inserts a "text mark" (@TM) at each division - you can convert this to anything you require, for example a newline, using Convert() for single character or Ereplace() for multi-character.

You might also like to investigate the Fold() function, though I don't think this offers the "text break" functionality you can get with Fmt().

[chulett]

You can use Fmt(InLink.TheString, "25T")

Ooooo... New trick for old dog. Thank you Master. :D

[danddmrs]

Thanks Ray.

I'll have to join to see the full reply but I get where you're going. I didn't think this was going to be more difficult than Cobol - nothing else in DS is.

Great forum! If the company won't kick in the $ I'll join myself.

Thanks again.
Richard

[ray.wurlod]

Maybe the fact that you need a small contribution to get full technical information could be used to justify the expense to the company?

[danddmrs]

Thanks Ray. The text mark and convert worked but with one problem. Names are left justified within each field but the fields are being filled from LAST to FIRST. I would have expected the opposite.

Dicks Diner is
" ", " ", "Dicks Diner "
instead of
"Dicks Diner ", " ", " "

I'm going to load it to the database and see how the Webpage likes it but thought I'd throw this out.

Thanks.
Richard Schneider

[ray.wurlod]

Last to first suggests that you're using "25R" rather than "25T".

[danddmrs]

Code is CONVERT(CHAR(251),"",FMT(L1.ORG_NM,"25T"))

I've tried TrimF(CONVERT(CHAR(251),"",FMT(L1.ORG_NM,"25T"))) and also using TrimF on the field in a second transform. Probably not a great idea but...

I also tried to evaluate the field 25 bytes at a time but that repeated the same 25 bytes 3 times. Maybe the problem isn't spaces but something else?

Not sure if it matters but the output of the transform is an FTP plug-in sending the data to the mainframe. I'm going to make a copy and write to a sequential file to see what happens.

Thanks.
Richard Schneider

[nick.bond]

Try this, you may find the field function handy if you want these into 3 separate fields.

Code: Select all

Field1 = Trim(Field(FMT(L1.ORG_NM,"25T"), @TM, 1))
Field2 = Trim(Field(FMT(L1.ORG_NM,"25T"), @TM, 2))
Field3 = Trim(Field(FMT(L1.ORG_NM,"25T"), @TM, 3))

[danddmrs]

Thanks. The field function worked very nicely. The fields are populating in the correct order.

Remaining issue with justified right appears to be tied to how the FTP Plug-in is set up. When I write to a sequential file the data is left justified as expected.

I will close this thread and search the FTP posts for answers before posting anything else.

Thanks again all!
Richard Schneider

[ray.wurlod]

For efficiency you might evaluate FMT(L1.ORG_NM,"25T") once in a stage variable rather than three times in expressions.