substring function

[lancien]

A developper has to code in e*Gate the following rule :
"take the 20 first characters of a string".

He say me that he use a substring function and that this function launch an exception if the initial string has less than 20 characters. For me the function should return the whole string if it is smaller than 20.
Is it a "normal" behaviour of the substring function or is it a bad use made by the developper ?

Thanks by advance.

 

[lieni]

in which language its programmed? monk or java?

 

[lieni]

in java in would work as you expected, monk is a little bit stange.

but like this it would work:

trim(substr(catinate(str_to_trunc,' '),1,20))

 

[lancien]

I don't know.

Can you answer for one (or for the 2 langages) ?

Thanks.

 

[lancien]

Thanks for your answer.

A last question : how many spaces in the string following str_to_trunc of the monk code ?

trim(substr(catinate(str_to_trunc,' '),1,20))

 

[lieni]

at least 20 spaces. Like this, the string is at least 20 characers, you cut out the first 20, and with trim you eliminate the remaining spaces.

if the language would be java and your programmer use offical java routins (not own developped stuff) then it would work properly.