How to suppress blank characters

[PAULCALLAGHAN]

I'm using CR version 8.5 and have two text fields that are 25 characters in length. They are not always used to their maximum space.

Is there a way to merge these two fields together without showing the blank spaces? I have limited space and I would like to present these fields as a single field on a report.

 

[bdreed35]

You can do 1 of 2 things:

One, you can add a text object to your report and then drag the 2 fields into it.
Second, you can create a formula to concatenate the 2 fields:

trim({table.field1}) + trim({table.field2})

~Brian

 

[bdreed35]

Forgot to add that depending where it is on the report, you may be able to put the 2 fields in there own section and then use the "Suppress Blank Section" option in the Section Expert.

~Brian

 

[synapsevampire]

The third option might be to use a SQL Expression which would offload the processing to the database:

{fn RTRIM(`table`.`field1`)}+{fn RTRIM(`table`.`field2`)}

Assumes only the right trim required, add the LTRIM also if required.

-k

 

[PAULCALLAGHAN]

Excellent! The trim function.

I have another part to my question though. The person who inputs to one of these fields will place "??" at the right-most end of the field. It will not always be in the same place everytime though, and it is only done in certain situations.

How can I extract this "??" from my merged result, that uses the Trim function?

Is there a way to extract certain characters?

 

[bdreed35]

If you need to remove the "??" then you can do that with the replace function.

Replace({@MergedResult},"??","")

~Brian

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
If you want to eliminate the ?? from your concatenation,
use a InStr to find the first occurance of the '?' and then create a substring that stops before it gets to that char.
Try something like:

trim({table.field1[1 to (Instr({table.field1,"?") -1)]) +
trim({table.field2[1 to (Instr({table.field2,"?") -1)])

You can also a function ( as recommended by -k) :
Depending on the database, it would use InStr and SubString functions - the exact syntax is Database specific.

 

[PAULCALLAGHAN]

Excellent!!! Thank you Brian, et al...