Trim function that trims all non-printing chars?

[reedrichards]

Is there a way to create a trim function that will trim ALL non-printing characters? The built-in Trim function only takes care of leading/trailing spaces.

Barring that, maybe I can set an "In range" limit on the field? But how would I do that if I wanted to include everything except non-printing characters? There are a number of odder characters (punctuation, foreign chars, etc.) I'd like to keep.

[Reed]

In v6, you can use nested Substitute() functions to replace any characters you want with nothing. In v7, you can enter a list of substitutions instead of using nested functions.

[reedrichards]

That's a good idea. Now how can I code somthing like a carriage return? Can I type it in hex or Unicode?

[-Queue-]

[geoffrey6]

substitute

[QuinTech]

Well, the substitute function only substitutes each unique, non-overlapping instance of the substituted-for string. Let me use "a" instead of "" just to keep it clear (if only in my own mind )

Start with "aaa". Find every occurrence of "aa" -- there's only one, right?

aaa or aaa.

Now delete every occurrence of "aa" and replace it with something, anything, oh, i don't know, let's say "a", and we wind up with

aa

You can get around this feature/limitation (depending on your perspective) by iterating the substitution multiple times:

Loop

..Substitute ( theField , ":paragraph::paragraph:" , ":paragraph:" )

..Exit Loop If ( PatternCount ( theField , ":paragraph::paragraph:" ) = 0 )

End Loop

HTH,

Jerry

[Ender]

Or check out the substitute function Fenton showed in here:

http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=custom&Number=134271

[Lee Smith]

HinEnder,

Isn't this for version 7? Or did I miss read something here.

Lee

[Ender]

The algorithm can be translated to work in older versions (Bob Weaver's example that you sited used the original substitute() syntax. His was for eliminating spaces, but the same thing can be done for line returns.)

[Lee Smith]

Hi Ender,

Sorry, I guess I didn't make myself very clear. My question about v7, was regards to the Filter part of the calculation. Is that a version 7 feature, or did I miss something?

Lee

[Ender]

The filter part is not necessary for this.

[Lee Smith]

Darn, I thought there was a new approach to this in v6 that I had missed.