SCANSTR()

CA-GSS Statements and Commands › GSS Extended Functions › IO Functions › Number, String, and Variable Functions › System Information Functions › SCANSTR()

SCANSTR()

The SCANSTR() function scans a text string for complex patterns.

Syntax

The SCANSTR() function has this syntax:

{0|1} = SCANSTR(pattern,string,[vldc],[fldc])

Arguments

The SCANSTR() function takes these arguments.

0/1	If the specified pattern is present in the scanned string, a 1 is returned. If the string is not found, a 0 is returned.
pattern	Pattern character string to be searched for. The pattern is composed of any combination of characters and placeholders (VLDCs and FLDCs).
string	Text string to be scanned for the pattern.
vldc	(Variable-Length Do not-Care) A character that, when appearing in the pattern, will be taken to represent an arbitrary string of any length (including zero). Default: & (ampersand)
fldc	(Fixed-Length Do not-Care) A character that, when appearing in the pattern, will be taken to represent exactly one arbitrary character. Default: * (asterisk)

Usage Notes

All usage notes assume that the VLDC character is & and the FLDC character is *.

Blanks are treated in the same manner as non-blanks, both in the pattern and in the scanned string.
All scans are case-sensitive.
Remember to use wildcard characters. b will not match abc but &b& will.
For a pattern to match a string, all characters in the string must be accounted for in the pattern, including leading and trailing blanks.
Since the VLDC character will expand to match any string, coding && is meaningless.
Code *& to match a string of one or more characters, **& to match a string of two or more characters, etc.
Note that the rules of pattern matching may yield unexpected results. A pattern of x*&x will match strings: xxx, xyx, xxxxxxxxxx, xyxjlkjlkjlkjx. A pattern of &ab&c*d& will match strings: xxx ab c dxxx, xxxab cc abc dxx, aabbccdd.
If the FLDC or VLDC characters appear in the string to be scanned, they are treated as ordinary characters in the scanned string and placeholders in the pattern.

Return Codes

The SCANSTR() function produces these return codes:

101 - 104 ARG n MISSING OR INVALID

120 SCAN PATTERN TOO LONG OR COMPLEX

Example

/*  Unpack a julian date from ISPF statistics format */
1 == scanstr('&cat&','cats and dogs')
1 == scanstr('&c*t&','dogs and cats')
0 == scanstr('&Cat&','cats and dogs')
1 == scanstr('&CAT&',translate('Cats and Dogs'))
1 == scanstr('&cat&dog&','cats and dogs'
1 == scanstr('cat&d**s','cats and dogs')
1 == scanstr('&cat&dog&','complete catalog of doggerel')

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