STRREP (inlength, instring, searchlength, searchstring, replength, repstring, outlength, output)

It seems that if the inlength is less than the searchlength, the output is blank.

See code below. I was expecting the value of VAR2 to be “D”, just like the value of VAR1. But because the length of the data in VAR1 is less than the length of the string to be replaced, the output is blank.

-SET &ECHO=ALL;

-SET &VAR1 = 'D';

-SET &VAR2 = STRREP (&VAR1.LENGTH, '&VAR1.EVAL', 2, 'ZZ', 4, 'BBBB', 1500, 'A1500');

-TYPE VAR1: &VAR1
-TYPE VAR2: &VAR2

Is this expected behaviour?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Francis Mariani,

I know for the SUBSTR function, when the end length is greater than the inlength, it returns spaces.

end
Integer
Is the ending position of the substring.
If this argument is less than start or greater than length, the function returns spaces.

So, I would think yes.
Just an opinion.

The documentation is pretty lite on detail.

Hi Francis,
I'm sure you have already thought/done this, but, this is what we do to circumvent:

  
-SET &ECHO=ALL;
-SET &VAR1 = 'D';
-SET &VAR2 = IF &VAR1 CONTAINS 'ZZ' THEN STRREP (&VAR1.LENGTH, '&VAR1.EVAL', 2, 'ZZ', 4, 'BBBB', 1500, 'A1500') ELSE &VAR1;
-TYPE VAR1: &VAR1
-TYPE VAR2: &VAR2
-EXIT

Hi guys,

I also found this problem with STRREP about two years ago and reported this to IBI in a case (80732511).
After more than one year the only response on this case was just:

"Thank you for bringing this problem to our attention. We have reviewed it
with our engineering staff and it has been determined that it will not be
implemented in the WebFOCUS product. Therefore, we will close the case.
If this decision substantially impacts your business, please discuss with
your local account support team.
Sincerely,"

And after a complaint of the closure of my case without resolving it:
"The description of behavior at the beginning of the
Using Functions Manual makes it pretty clear that errors
introduced by incorrect parameter handling can produce problems
and that the programmer is responsible for ensuring that the
problems are dealt with."

After that experience with IBI I almost gave up and very rarely raise any Cases with them...

btw. In the docu of searchlength they state "Is the number of characters in the (shorter length) string to be replaced." - probably (shorter length) should be enough for us to know
that the function returns an empty string once the searchstring is longer than the instring.

Cheers Linne

quote:

After that experience with IBI I almost gave up and very rarely raise any Cases with them...

Linne, that type of comment from Tech Support would make me open more cases, if only to annoy them...

I also had a bundle of cases closed.

I think they just wanted to clean out the lists of old or less important cases.