is it possible to nest the substitute function? i'd like to do something like this:

textinputfield: "Please substitute aaa for bbb."

textoutputcalc: "Please substitute apples for oranges."

i could do this with two calc fields like this:

textoutput1 = Substitute(textinput, "aaa", "apples")

textoutput2 = Substitute(textoutput1, "bbb", "oranges")

but that seems not particularly elegant, especially since each additional substitution would require an additional calc field.

A nested Substitute function is as follows:

Substitute(Substitute(text, search string, replace string), search string, replace string)

There is a limit to the number of nested substitutions, the limit depends on the version you use. Either way, if you hit the limit you can split the calculation between two or more calculation fields exactly the way you proposed in your first post.

25 nested substitutes should be safe.

just make sure you dont substitute anythin twice, aka

substitute(fsubstitute(field,"xxx";"grappler");"apple";"trash")

thanks everyone - glad it can be done!