Before (String function)
Part of string before a substring (String class)
[Introduced in Model 204 7.5]
Before operates on a string and returns the portion of that string prior to the user-specified delimiter. To get the portion of the string after a delimiter, use the After string method.
Syntax
%outString = string:Before( substring, [Start= number])
Syntax terms
| %outString | A string or longstring variable. if a string is specified it must be long enough to hold the resulting parsed string. If a string is defined shorter than needed to hold the result, a request canceling error occurs. |
|---|---|
| string | A string or longstring variable that holds the string to be parsed. |
| substring | A string or longstring that holds the separator character or characters on which parsing occurs. |
| Start | number The starting point for parsing. The default value is 1, indicating the beginning of the string. This is a name-optional argument and cannot be 0. If a value larger than the string is specified, the method always returns a null string. |
Usage notes
- As the examples below show, if a starting value is entered, the %outString value is the content of the string beginning at the specified start point and ending at either of these:
- The character before the first delimiter encountered after the start point.
- The end of the string.
- The delimiter string is not a list of individual delimiters, but a single delimiter which may be multiple characters. In other words, if your delimiter is
ok, the method looks for occurrences of those two lowercase letters and returns a value from the string that precedes the occurrence of those letters. - This method is always case-sensitive.
Examples
The following request prints
I am the Eggman:
begin %x is string len 64 initial('I am the Eggman! I am the Walrus! Koo Koo Kachoo!') printText {%x:before('!')} end
The following request prints Eggman:
begin %x is string len 64 initial('I am the Eggman! I am the Walrus! Koo Koo Kachoo!') printText {%x:before('!',start=10)} end
The following prints each blank-delimited word, one at a time:
begin %x is string len 64 initial('I am the Eggman! I am the Walrus! Koo Koo Kachoo!') repeat while %x:length print %x:before(' ') %x = %x:after(' ') end repeat end