$Word

The $Word function searches a string from the left for a complete word and returns the nth word in a specified string, delimited by a blank or optionally specified character.

Syntax

The format of the $Word function is:

$Word('inputstring',['delimiter'],[n])

Where:

• inputstring is the input from which the specified word is to be extracted. inputstring can be a quoted literal or a %variable.
• delimiter is an optional quoted character or string to be used as a delimiter in parsing the input string into words. If delimiter is not specified, it defaults to a blank space. If delimiter consists of more than one character, Model 204 uses the first character in the string as the delimiter.
• n is the ordinal number of the word to be extracted. $Word returns a null string under any of the following conditions:
  • n is not specified
  • n is less than 1 (0 or negative)
  • n is greater than the number of words in inputstring
  • The commas which separate the three arguments are required, even if delimiter is not specified.

Usage

Null values between delimiters are not considered words. For example:

$word('=ABCD==D=XXX','=',2)

Here $Word returns D as the second word, not a null value.

Examples

The following function returns the third word in the string, "THE", when a single space delimits a word:

$WORD ('NOW IS THE TIME',,3)

The following function returns the second word in the string, "S THE T", where a word is composed of the characters that precede a delimiting I:

$WORD ('NOW IS THE TIME','I',2)