Extracting tabs from a text string

[Withnail73]

Hi there! This must be a simple one but I can't seem to manage it. I'm reading a text file in line by line - the file was originally an xls spreadsheet that has been saved as txt and the columns tab delimited. If my collected string is "123456 " where the whitespace is a tab, how do I remove it? STRIP isn't working...

 

[mikrom]

Hi Withnail73,

This code:

/* define TAB in HEX */
tab='09'X
/* Construct string with trailing tabs */
mystring = "123456"||tab||tab
say "mystring with trailing tabs    = '"||mystring||"'"

/* Strip Trailing Tabs from string*/
mystring=strip(mystring,T,tab)
say "mystring without trailing tabs = '"||mystring||"'"

results in:

mystring with trailing tabs    = '123456                '
mystring without trailing tabs = '123456'

It seems to do what you need.

 

[Withnail73]

Bingo!! Thanks, mikrom - I was pulling my hair out.

 

[rexxhead]

If you have to parse text on both sides:

tab = '09'x
parse var inputstring fld1 (tab) fld2 (tab) fld3 ...etc

Frank Clarke
--Is it time for another Boston Tea Party?