Built-in Functions › TRANSLATE

TRANSLATE

Purpose

Returns the string that results from translating characters in a string value.

The characters are translated to corresponding characters that are specified in a substitution string:

• Characters in a selection string correspond by position to characters in a substitution string.
• Each character in the string value specified in the selection string is translated to the corresponding character contained in the substitution string.

Syntax

►►─── TRANSlate ( string, substitution-string ───┬─────────────────────┬─ ) ──►◄
                                                 └─ ,selection-string ─┘

Parameters

string

Specifies the string value on which the translate function is performed.

String can be:

• A string literal, enclosed in single quotation marks
• The name of a user-defined variable data field containing the string

substitution-string

Specifies the substitution string.

Substitution-string can be:

• A string literal, enclosed in single quotation marks
• The name of a user-defined variable data field containing the substitution string

selection-string

Specifies the selection string. Characters in selection-string will be replaced by corresponding characters in substitution-string.

Selection-string can be:

• A string literal, enclosed in single quotation marks
• The name of a user-defined variable data field containing the selection string

Usage

Considerations

• If selection-string is longer than substitution-string, the excess characters in selection-string correspond to blanks.
• If selection-string specifies the same character more than once, the translate function uses the first occurrence of the character.
• If selection-string is not specified, the 256-character EBCDIC table is used, consisting of hexadecimals 00 through FF.

Example

In the following example, the translate function is used to translate all occurrences in PART-CODE (PIC X(20)) of the characters A, B, C, and D (selection-string), to W, blank, Y, and Z (substitution-string), respectively:

Initial value:
    PART-CODE:  'B53A22B1E50D40C94   '
Statement:
    MOVE TRANS(PART-CODE,'W YZ','ABCD') TO WK-PART-CODE.
Returned string:
    ' 53W22 1E50Z40Y94   '