$Alpha

The $Alpha function verifies whether a string is composed only of characters that are valid in the specified (or default) language.

Syntax

%result = $Alpha(string [,language])

%result	A numeric variable that contains: 1, for a true condition. 0, for a false condition if one of these occurs: string contains digits, spaces, or punctuation marks string is null U.S. English characters in the string have accent marks
string	The string to be verified. string must be one of the following: A literal enclosed in quotation marks A %variable A field name without quotation marks. In this case, the function call must be embedded in a FOR EACH RECORD loop where the current value of the field is verified.
language	An optional string that specifies the language to use. language is handled as follows: You can enter a literal enclosed in quotation marks or a %variable containing a valid language name. If the value you enter is not a supported language, the request is canceled with the following error message. See the LANGUSER parameter for the valid values. M204.2340: INVALID LANGUAGE ARGUMENT: 'language' FOR $FUNCTION: ALPHA If you omit the language argument, Model 204 performs the validation in U.S. English, even if the value of the LANGUSER parameter is not US, and lowercase characters are not recognized. An asterisk enclosed in quotation marks ('*') instructs Model 204 to use the value of the LANGUSER parameter.

Examples

The following table has examples of the string and language arguments as literals.

Function code...	Returns...
$alpha('JOHN','US')	1
$alpha('MÂCON','FRENCHC')	1
$alpha('MÂCON','US')	0
$alpha('JOHN SMITH','US')	0
$alpha('ÎLE D'ORLÉANS','FRENCHC')	0
$alpha('12A','US')	0
$alpha('12A','FRENCHC')	0

In the following code example, the request sorts and prints the names of agents whose name contains nonalphabetic characters. The quoted asterisk in the $Alpha call causes Model 204 to verify the contents of the field AGENT against whatever language is indicated by the value of the LANGUSER parameter:

RESET LANGUSER 'FRENCHC' BEGIN POL.HOLDERS: FIND ALL RECORDS FOR WHICH RECTYPE = POLICYHOLDER END FIND FOR EACH RECORD IN POL.HOLDERS IF NOT $alpha (AGENT, '*') THEN PLACE RECORD ON LIST BADNAME END IF END FOR ORDERED.LIST: SORT RECORDS ON LIST BADNAME BY AGENT FOR EACH RECORD IN ORDERED.LIST PRINT AGENT END FOR END

Note: For upward compatibility reasons, $Alpha and $Alphnum do not recognize lowercase English letters as alphabetic characters unless a non-null language parameter is specified.