Search / replace

[Jim Ault]

On Feb 19, 2010, at 6:57 PM, Glen Bojsza wrote:

> I have a field which has hundreds of lines.
>
> For all [ in the field I need to check to see if the character to it's
> immediate left is a number.
>
> If it is a number then the [ is to be converted into an _.
>
> If it is not a number then the [ is to be removed (no substitution or
> spaces).
>
> I need to be able to cycle through the entire field which each line  
> may
> contain several [.
>
> Any thoughts would be appreciated as I have tried using a  
> combination of
> find characters and foundchunk on the field without success.
>


assuming that the line cr char does not really matter
solution without RegEx

    put fld 1 into originalTextBlock
    set the linedel to "["
    repeat for each line LNN in originalTextBlock
       if word -1 of LNN is a number then
          put LNN & "_" after newVersion
       else
          put LNN  after newVersion
       end if
    end repeat
    set the linedel to cr
    -- see note below
    replace (cr & "_") with (cr & "[") in newVersion
    put newVersion into fld 2

-----------------------
Just in case there is a line ending in a number and the first char of  
the next line is '['
  and you did not want that specific conversion
  change is back to a '[' char

    replace (cr & "_") with (cr & "[") in newVersion

Brain dead + RegEx = disaster
I like and use RegEx, but know that you must be fresh to get it right  
in less than a fortnight :-)

Jim Ault
Las Vegas