View source for $LIKE

<p>
The <var>$LIKE</var> function provides total control over the parsing and evaluation languages used in pattern matching. It has two language parameters: one to control the parsing language, <var>LANGUSER</var>, and one to control the evaluation language, <var>LANGFILE</var>.</p>
<p>
The <var>LANGLIKE</var> operator and <var>$LIKE</var> function in expressions coordinate to provide consistency between the <var>FIND</var> statement and the <var>IF</var> statement, and avoid complicating the interpretation of the evaluation language parameter.</p>

==Syntax==
<p class="syntax">$LIKE(<span class="term">string</span>,<span class="term">pattern</span>[,<span class="term">parse-lang</span>][,<span class="term">eval-lang</span>]])
</p>

Where:
<ul>
<li>The <var class="term">string</var> argument represents the characters to verify. It must be one of the following:
<ul>
<li>A literal enclosed in quotation marks.</li>

<li>%variable.</li>

<li>A field name without quotation marks. In this case, the function call must be embedded in a <var>FOR EACH RECORD</var> loop where the current value of the field is verified.</li>
</ul></li>

<li>The required <var class="term">pattern</var> argument is the string of characters to verify, which you can specify as a literal enclosed in quotation marks or as a %variable.</li>

<li>The optional <var class="term">parse-lang</var> argument specifies the language to use for parsing. The <var class="term">parse-lang</var> argument is handled as follows:
<ul>
<li>Omitting this argument instructs <var class="product">Model&nbsp;204</var> to use U.S. English parsing rules, even if the value of the <var>LANGUSER</var> parameter is not <code>US</code>.</li>

<li>An asterisk enclosed in quotation marks (<tt>'*'</tt>) instructs <var class="product">Model&nbsp;204</var> to use the value of the <var>LANGUSER</var> parameter.</li>

<li>You can enter a literal name of a valid language enclosed in quotation marks. If you enter a name that is not supported, the request is canceled with an error message. See [[LANGUSER parameter]] for the valid values.</li>
</ul></li>

<li>The optional <var class="term">eval-lang</var> argument specifies the language to use for evaluation. Its requirements are identical to the <var class="term">parse-lang</var> argument.</li>
</ul>

==Example==
<p>
The following request matches the field <code>NAME</code> against the pattern <code>(A-Z)*@</code> using <code>US</code> as the parsing language and <code>TURKISH</code> as the evaluation language. </p>
<ul>
<li>The parsing language, <var>LANGUSER</var>, determines the special characters that can be used in a pattern. The pattern is checked for syntax against these characters. The evaluation language, <var>LANGFILE</var>, is used when the pattern is matched against the data. </li>

<li>The evaluation language, <var>LANGFILE</var>, determines the collating sequence and the definition of alphabetic characters. </li>
</ul>
<p>
In this example, the evaluation language is Turkish. Therefore all character matching is done against the Turkish alphabet, and the range operation, <code>(A-Z)</code>, uses the collating sequence of the Turkish language. </p>
<p class="code">BEGIN
FD1: IN DATA FIND ALL RECORDS
   END FIND
   %PAT='(A-Z)*@'
   FOR EACH RECORD IN FD1
    %RC = $LIKE(NAME,%PAT,'US','TURKISH')
    IF %RC EQ 0 THEN
     PRINT 'STRING: 'WITH NAME WITH 'does not match PATTERN: -
           '  WITH %PAT
    END IF
   END FOR
END
</p>

[[Category:SOUL $functions]]