Re: trimming non-numerics

[Hans Boldt <boldt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Jeffrey Lee wrote:
> I was wondering how I could strip any non numberic characters from a set of 
> numbers submitted via a html form. For example (504) 555-5555 would be 
> 5045555555 or 504-555-5555 would be 5045555555   Like %trim does with spaces is 
> there something to deal with non-numberics?
> --

If you were programming in Python, you could do this with the simple 
expression (''.join([c for c in source if c.isdigit()])). ;-)

But since this is an RPG list, you probably want an RPG answer, right?

Others have suggested using some combination of the built-in functions 
%XLATE and %REPLACE. Personally, I thinks that's overkill. I'd recommend 
the obvious approach of simply looping over the source string selecting 
the digits out of the string (just like what the above Python expression 
does):

------------------------------------------------------------------
D i               s             10i 0
D source          s             50a   varying
D target          s             50a   varying
 /free
    source = 'jafgjh934hdfg94k3ghsd0jdfg0345jdfg';
    target = '';

    // Extract digits out of source string
    for i = 1 to %len(source);
       if '0' <= %subst(source:i:1) and %subst(source:i:1) <= '9';
          target += %subst(source:i:1);
       endif;
    endfor;

    // Display results
    dsply source;
    dsply target;
    *inlr = *on;
 /end-free
------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh yeah, if you're not on V5R2, replace the middle statement of the loop 
with:

          target = target + %subst(source:i:1);

Cheers! Hans