Ignore text after carriage return

[itsuit]

I have a database field ("DESCRIPTION") that allows carriage returns when the data is being entered. In my report, I only want to include text entered prior to the first carriage return (discarding everything after that). Can anyone help with the formula for this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dgillz]

Normally you could use the instr() function to test for the existence of a substring and then use the left() function to get the first part of the string. Example:

Left("I SHOT THE SHERIFF",Instr("I SHOT THE SHERRIFF","THE")-1)

returns "I SHOT ".

I tested with with chr(13), which is a carriage return, wothout success. Is there some other charcter(s) we can look for?


Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Exact Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

 

[jdemmi]

I have never tried this with a field in which there is text after "trailing spaces" (carriage returns) but it might work.

Try RTrim({table.field}) -- basic syntax

or

TrimRight({table.field}) -- Crystak syntax

-- Jason
"It's Just Ones and Zeros

 

[lbass]

Try:

left({table.string}, instr({table.string},chr(13))-3)

The chr(13) appears to take 3 spaces.

-LB

 

[itsuit]

Thanks for the prompt replies, folks!

jdemmi's suggestion worked perfectly - I didn't think that TrimRight would take carriage returns into account, but it did!

Thanks again.

 

[itsuit]

I spoke too soon - when exporting to a tab-separated text file, I noticed that the carriage return is still appearing in some records.

lbass, I tried your suggestion but the problem is that not *all* records have a carriage return, so I get a zero-length string error on those records without the carriage return.

Any other suggestions for handling that?

Thanks!

 

[lbass]

I'm assuming you want the whole string when there is no carriage return:

if instr({table.string},chr(13)) <> 0 then
left({table.string}, instr({table.string},chr(13))-3) else
{table.string}

-LB

 

[synapsevampire]

It seems this has all been overcomplicated.

Replace all carriage returns with nothing, just use the following:

replace({table.string}, chr(13),"")

You might also want to make sure that you eliminate line feeds:

replace(replace({table.string}, chr(13),""),(chr(10),"")

As for finding carriage returns in a tab seperated fiel, they will have thyem at the end of each row, a tab seperated seperates columns with tabs, rows with carriage returns.

-k

 

[itsuit]

synapsevampire -

Worked like a charm.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.

 

[lbass]

Your original requirements were:

In my report, I only want to include text entered prior to the first carriage return (discarding everything after that).

I think SV's solution would only remove the return, not remove text occuring after the return.

-LB

 

[goranm]

Hi !

This is not a 100 % solution, but if you start with replacing the carriage return and line feeds with a character that you is almost certain of not exists in your string. For example a ^.

Then your formula could look like this:

if instr({table.string},chr(13)) <> 0 then
Split(replace(replace({table.string}, chr(13),"^"),(chr(10)),"^"), "^")[1]
else
{table.string}

The split will help you get the part prior to the first carriage return.

(The split function came with version 8)

/Goran