REPLACE function

Returns a string with specified substring replacements.

Syntax


REPLACE ( `source-string` , `from-string` , `to-string` )

source-string

Specifies the base string to make replacements in. The source-string parameter can be any expression that evaluates to a string or a LONGCHAR. The REPLACE function does not change the value of source-string itself; the function returns the string with replacements.

from-string

Specifies the substring to replace. The from-string parameter can be any expression that evaluates to a string or a LONGCHAR. Each occurrence of from-string within source-string is replaced.

to-string

Specifies the replacement substring. The to-string parameter can be any expression that evaluates to a string or a LONGCHAR. Each occurrence of from-string in source-string is replaced by to-string.

Example

The following example uses the REPLACE function to replace the string “user” with an actual user ID, if available:

r-repl.p
DEFINE VARIABLE greeting AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO FORMAT "x(40)" INITIAL "Starting user’s session . . . ". IF USERID("DICTDB") < > "" THEN greeting = REPLACE(greeting, "user", USERID("DICTDB")). DISPLAY greeting WITH NO-LABELS.

r-repl.p

DEFINE VARIABLE greeting AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO FORMAT "x(40)" 
  INITIAL "Starting user’s session . . . ". 
IF USERID("DICTDB") < > "" THEN  
  greeting = REPLACE(greeting, "user", USERID("DICTDB")). 
DISPLAY greeting WITH NO-LABELS.

Notes

The REPLACE function replaces all occurrences of from-string within source-string. After replacing a substring, the REPLACE function resumes searching the string after the inserted text. Thus, the inserted text is not recursively searched (in whole or in part) for from-string.

The search for occurrences of from-string within source-string is not case sensitive, unless one of the three values used in the function (source-string, to-string, or from-string) is a case-sensitive field or variable.