View source for $Index

{{DISPLAYTITLE:$Index}}
<span class="pageSubtitle">Find position of one string within another</span>

<p class="warn"><b>Note: </b>Most $functions have been deprecated in favor of Object Oriented methods. The OO equivalents for the <var>$Index</var> function are the [[PositionIn and PositionOf (String functions)|PositionIn and PositionOf]] functions.</p>
<p><var>$Index</var> returns a number equal to the first position within the first string at which the second string appears. </p>
<b>Example 1</b>
<p class="code">$INDEX ('OTHER', 'THE') equals 2
$INDEX ('SAME', 'SAME') equals 1 
</p>
<b>Example 2</b>
<p>If the second string is not contained in the first or is a null string, zero is returned:</p>
<p class="code">$INDEX ('SAME', 'OTHER') equals 0
$INDEX ('SOME', 'SOMEMORE') equals 0
$INDEX ('ABC', ") equals 0 
</p>
<b>Example 3</b>
<p>This request uses <var>$Index</var> to separate the last name from a field containing a full name in the form "last name, first name":</p>
<p class="code">BEGIN
FIND.RECS: FIND ALL RECORDS FOR WHICH
               DATE OF BIRTH IS LESS THAN 19660000
           END FIND
           FOR EACH RECORD IN FIND.RECS
               %LASTNAME = -
                   $SUBSTR (FULLNAME, 1, -
                            $INDEX (FULLNAME,',')-1)
               ADD LAST NAME = %LASTNAME
                   .
                   .
                   .    
</p>
[[Category:SOUL $functions]]