Text formatting - sentence

[Dusty_Rods]

Hi guys,

Has anyone every come accross a formula that will text format a field like so

The user inputs:

my name is david.i live in a town.Please vist me

And the format output from the formula

My name is david. I live in a town. Please vist me

All i want really is the first letter of every sentence capitalized and there be a space after every .

Any help very much appriated.

D

[rdhaden]

I don't know about doing it by calculation, but with an additional field, a global number field called counter, I think this script would do it for you:

Set Field [ table::counter; 1 ]

Set Field [ table::field; Upper ( Left ( table::field; 1 ) ) & Right ( table::field ; Length ( table::field ) - 1 ) ]

If [ PatternCount ( table::field ; "." ) ]

Loop

If [ Middle ( table::field ; Position ( table::field ; "." ; 1 ; table::counter ) + 1 ; 1 ) <> " " ]

Set Field [ table::field; Replace ( table::field ; Position ( table::field ; "." ; 1 ; table::counter ) ; 1 ; ". " ) ]

End If

Set Field [ table::field; Let (

[ PositionCurrentPeriod = Position (table::field ; "." ; 1 ; table::counter ) ;

TextToCurrentPeriod = Left (table::field ; PositionCurrentPeriod) ;

StartingWord = WordCount ( TextToCurrentPeriod ) + 1 ;

WordAfterPeriod = MiddleWords (table::field ; StartingWord ; 1 ) ] ;

Substitute ( table::field ; WordAfterPeriod ; Proper ( WordAfterPeriod ) )

) ]

Set Field [ table::counter; table::counter + 1 ]

Exit Loop

If [ table::counter = PatternCount ( table::field ; "." ) + 1 ]

End Loop

Else

Set Field [ table::field; Replace ( table::field ; 1 ; 1 ; Proper ( LeftWords ( table::field ; 1 ) ) ) ]

End If

[BobWeaver]

You could use the substitute function like this:

Middle(Substitute("."&InputText;[" ";" "];[". ";"."];

[".a";". A"];[".b";". B"];[".c";". C"];[".d";". D"];

[".e";". E"];[".f";". F"];[".g";". G"];[".h";". H"];

[".i";". I"];[".j";". J"];[".k";". K"];[".l";". L"];

[".m";". M"];[".n";". N"];[".o";".O"];[".p";". P"];

[".q";". Q"];[".r";". R"];[".s";". S"];[".t";". T"];

[".u";". U"];[".v";". V"];[".w";". W"];

[".x";". X"];[".y";". Y"];[".z";". Z"]);3;10000000)

[rdhaden]

SWEET!! I didn't know you could pass multiple parameters like that!

Incidentally, you kill all the spaces. Take out the [" ";""] parameter, and you're good to go though, except for the "existing space after period" issue. I'm going to have to work the brackets in other functions and see what happens.

I love this forum...

[BobWeaver]

Yeah, I noted the glitch after I posted. I went back and edited the previous post to fix it. But, you must have already got the old one. The intention was to replace double blanks with a single one, because excess spaces could mess up the calculation.

The ability to use multiple sets of search/replace strings in the Substitute function is new with version 7. With version 6 and earlier, you can still accomplish the same thing by nesting Substitute functions, but it's not as clean looking.

[-Queue-]

TrimAll( text; 0; 0 ) will change any multiple spaces into single ones and remove any leading and trailing ones. Just an FYI.

[BobWeaver]

This newfangled version 7 has been sitting in the box here for the past 10 months. So, now that I finally got it installed, I'm finding all sorts of clever new functions. Had a look at the TrimAll function a couple of weeks ago, but for some reason I didn't think it would do that. Thanks for pointing it out.

[BobWeaver]

Noticed there's still little problem with the formula in a couple of situations. Here is a fixed version:

Middle(Substitute(TrimAll(". "&Substitute ( InputText ; "." ; ". " );0;0);

[". a";". A"];[".b";". B"];[".c";". C"];[".d";". D"];

[". e";". E"];[". f";". F"];[". g";". G"];[". h";". H"];

[". i";". I"];[". j";". J"];[". k";". K"];[". l";". L"];

[". m";". M"];[". n";". N"];[". o";".O"];[". p";". P"];

[". q";". Q"];[". r";". R"];[". s";". S"];[". t";". T"];

[". u";". U"];[". v";". V"];[". w";". W"];

[". x";". X"];[". y";". Y"];[". z";". Z"]);3;10000000)

[rdhaden]

No wonder "Using FileMaker 7" is about a foot and a half thick and weighs around 150 pounds.

Hey! My copy doesn't even say anything about TrimAll! It's got a Trim, and a TrimChar (which would do the trick too), but no TrimAll. I guess if they included everything, it'd be 2 feet thick and 200 pounds.

[-Queue-]

TrimChar is not a function in FM 7, unless it's possibly for a different region/language?

[rdhaden]

Oh, never mind. I looked again, it's an example of a custom function. They done made it up...

Still no mention of TrimAll, though. What do the TrimSpace and TrimType parameters mean?

[Dusty_Rods]

Hi guys thanks for all the input its great really works a charm.

here is a newer vesion as b c d were formatted funny last time.

fmforums rule.

D

Middle(Substitute(TrimAll(". "&Substitute ( Input Text ; "." ; ". " );0;0);

[". a";". A"];[". b";". B"];[". c";". C"];[". d";". D"];

[". e";". E"];[". f";". F"];[". g";". G"];[". h";". H"];

[". i";". I"];[". j";". J"];[". k";". K"];[". l";". L"];

[". m";". M"];[". n";". N"];[". o";".O"];[". p";". P"];

[". q";". Q"];[". r";". R"];[". s";". S"];[". t";". T"];

[". u";". U"];[". v";". V"];[". w";". W"];

[". x";". X"];[". y";". Y"];[". z";". Z"]);3;10000000)