ToTrim

[BROWNIE56]

Our name field prints the lastnamefirst name in one field.

How would I print the first 20 characters of the last name followed by 5 spaces then print the first 15 characters of the first name?

Thanks,

Sharon

 

[dgillz]

You did not say where in the string the first name begins, so I cannot help you. I need to know where it begins, and what happens if you have a very short last name like "Woo"? Does the first name begin at character # 4 ? Or is it padded with X number of spaces?

Please advise Software Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[BROWNIE56]

The field is a 50 character varchar

Our users type in the name such as:

Brown, Sharon
Brown Sharon
BrownSharon

What I have to do it print, on a dot matrix form, the last name then the first name.

There is room for 20 characters for the last name and a few blank spaces then room for 15 characters for the first name.

 

[dgillz]

So there is not consistency to the first and last names? It is possible to test for the existence of a comma or a space and separate the string -- this is done with the Instr() function -- but I know of no way to separate the string if there is nothing to indicate where the separation is.

Software Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[Ngolem]

The only way to separate them the way you have shown us is if we are garuanteed that the first name begins with a capital letter...we can find that.

Is the reason for the mandatory 20 chars of Last name + 5 chars of spaces so that the First names line up?? This won't happen unless you use a courier font. I would recommend a formula field then 2 display fields...then there is no alignment problem

@GetLastnameFirstname
WhilePrintingRecords;
stringVar temp := {table.lastnamefirstname};
stringVar firstName := "";
stringVar lastName := "";
numberVar i;

//strip out the commas and any blanks

temp := replace(temp," ",""
temp := replace(temp,",",""

//start test at second char for the first capital
for i := 2 to Length(temp) do
(
if asc(temp) in [65 to 90] then
(
if i > 20 then
firstName := temp[1 to 20]
else
firstName := temp[1 to i-1];
if length(temp) - i + 1 > 15 then
lastName := temp[i to i+14]
else
lastName := temp[i to length(temp)];
exit for;
);
);

//do something if there are no capitals
if firstName := "" then
(
firstName := left(temp,20);
lastName := right(temp,15);
);


then the display formulas

@Display Firstname
WhilePrintingRecords;
evaluateafter({@GetLastnameFirstname})
stringVar firstName ;

firstName ;

@Display Lastname
WhilePrintingRecords;
evaluateafter({@GetLastnameFirstname})
stringVar lastName ;

lastName ;


put all 3 formulas in the detail section but suppress the
@GetLastnameFirstname formula and space the other 2 display formulas appropriately.

This is the best I can do...even then this formula won't handle hyphenated lastnames...I suppose it could if I tested for them...then ignored the next capital letter...but I'll let you figure that out

Hope this helps;


Jim

JimBroadbent@Hotmail.com