Returns a string with specified substring replacements. The data type of the
returned value matches the data type of the expression passed to the function.
Syntax
REPLACE ( source-string , from-string , to-string )
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-
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.
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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.
