Class BirtStr
The BirtStr class provides functions to manipulate strings, for example, to concatenate strings, trim extra spaces, get parts of a string, and display strings in lower or upper case. This class is static. The application cannot create instances of the class.
BirtStr.charLength
This function returns the length of a given string.
Syntax
integer BirtStr.charLength( string source )
Parameter
source
String. The string to evaluate.
Returns
Integer. The number of characters in the specified string.
Examples
The following example returns the length of a specific string:
BirtStr.charLength( "Julie Murphy" ) // returns 12
The following example returns the length of each value in the CustomerName field:
BirtStr.charLength( row["CustomerName"] )
BirtStr.concat
This function returns the string that results from concatenating specified strings.
Syntax
string BirtStr.concat( string source1, ..., sourceN )
Parameter
source1, ..., sourceN
String. The strings to concatenate.
Returns
String. The string that results from concatenating a series of strings.
Example
The following example returns a full address by concatenating values from multiple fields:
BirtStr.concat( row["AddressLine1"], ", ", row["AddressLine2"], ", ", row["City"],
" ", row["PostalCode"], "row["State"], ", ", row["Country"] )
BirtStr.indexOf
This function returns the position of a specified substring in a given string.
Syntax
integer BirtStr.indexOf( sring target, string source, integer start )
Parameters
target
String. The substring to search for. The search is case‑sensitive.
source
String. The string in which to look for a specified substring.
start
Integer. Optional. The position in the source string where the search starts. If you omit this argument, the function starts the search from the first character of the string.
Returns
Integer. The numerical position of the substring in the string. The first character of a string starts at 0. If the substring is not found, the function returns ‑1.
Examples
The following example returns the numeric position of specified characters in specific strings:
BirtStr.indexOf( " ", "Julie Murphy" ) // returns 5
BirtStr.indexOf( "-", "ModelA-1234-567" ) // returns 6
BirtStr.indexOf( "-", "ModelA-1234-567", 7 ) // returns 11
The following example uses BirtStr.indexOf( ) in conjunction with BirtStr.left( ) to display the characters that precede the space character in a customer name. The BirtStr.left( ) function extracts a substring of a specified length, starting from the first character. In this example, the length of the substring to display is equal to the numerical position of the space character.
spaceCharPosition = BirtStr.indexOf( " ", row["customerName"] );
displayFirstName = BirtStr.left( row["customerName"], spaceCharPosition );
If the customer name is Julie Murphy, the expression returns Julie.
BirtStr.left
This function extracts a substring of a specified length from a string, starting from the leftmost, or first, character.
Syntax
string BirtStr.left( string source, integer n )
Parameters
source
String. The string from which to extract a substring.
n
Integer. The number of characters to extract, starting from the first character.
Returns
String. A substring of a specific length.
*If you omit n, the number of characters to extract, the function returns the first character only.
*If n is zero, the function returns an empty string.
*If n is greater than the length of the string, the function returns the entire string.
Examples
The following example returns substrings of various lengths from specific strings:
BirtStr.left( "Julie Murphy", 5 ) // returns Julie
BirtStr.left( "Julie Murphy", 12 ) // returns Julie Murphy
The following example uses BirtStr.indexOf( ) in conjunction with BirtStr.left( ) to display the characters that precede the space character in a customer name. The BirtStr.left( ) function extracts a substring of a specified length, starting from the first character. In this example, the length of the substring to display is equal to the numerical position of the space character.
spaceCharPosition = BirtStr.indexOf( " ", row["customerName"] );
displayFirstName = BirtStr.left( row["customerName"], spaceCharPosition );
If the customer name is Julie Murphy, the expression returns Julie.
BirtStr.right
This function extracts a substring of a specified length from a string, starting from the rightmost, or last, character.
Syntax
String BirtStr.right( String source, integer n )
Parameters
source
String. The string from which to extract a substring.
n
Integer. The number of characters to extract, starting from the last character.
Returns
String. A substring of a specific length.
*If you omit n, the number of characters to extract, the function returns the last character only.
*If n is zero, the function returns an empty string.
*If n is greater than the length of the string, the function returns the entire string.
Examples
The following example returns substrings of various lengths from specific strings:
BirtStr.right( "Julie Murphy", 6 ) // returns Murphy
BirtStr.right( "Julie Murphy", 12 ) // returns Julie Murphy
The following example uses BirtStr.right( ) in conjunction with the BirtStr.indexOf( ) and BirtStr.charLength( ) functions to display the characters that appear after the space character in a customer name. This example assumes that the number of characters after the hyphen varies. Therefore, the length of the entire string (returned by BirtStr.charLength( )) minus the length up to the hyphen (returned by BirtStr.indexOf( )) is the number of characters to display.
spaceCharPosition = BirtStr.indexOf( " ", row["customerName"] );
displayLastName = BirtStr.right( row["customerName"], (BirtStr.charLength( row["customerName"] - (spaceCharPosition + 1)) )
If the customer name is Julie Murphy, the expression returns Murphy. If the customer name is Kwai Li, the expression returns Li.
BirtStr.search
This function returns the position of a specified substring in a given string. The substring can contain wildcard characters.
Syntax
integer BirtStr.search( string pattern, string source, integer index )
Parameters
pattern
String. The string pattern to search for. The search is case-insensitive. You can use the following wildcard characters in a pattern:
*An asterisk (*) matches zero or more characters, including spaces. For example, t*n matches tn, tin, and teen.
*A question mark (?) matches exactly one character. For example, t?n matches tan, ten, tin, and ton. It does not match teen or tn.
To match a literal asterisk or question mark in a string, precede those characters with two backslash characters (\\). For example, to find the substring R*10, use the following string pattern:
"R\\*10"
source
String. The string in which to look for a specified substring.
index
Integer. Optional. The position in the source string where the search starts. If you omit this argument, the function starts the search from the first character of the string.
Returns
Integer. The numerical position of the substring in the string. The first character of a string starts at 0. If the substring is not found, the function returns ‑1.
Examples
The following example returns the numeric position of specified string patterns in specific strings:
BirtStr.search( "XM?", "XMS-ModelA-1234-567" ) // returns 0
BirtStr.search( "ModelA*", "XMS-ModelA-1234-567" ) // returns 4
BirtStr.search( "-", "XMS-ModelA-1234-567", 4 ) // returns 10
The following example searches for the string pattern, S*A, in each value in the ProductCode field. If the product code is KBS5412A, the expression returns 2.
BirtStr.search( "S*A", row["ProductCode"] )
The following example uses BirtStr.search( ) in conjunction with BirtStr.left( ) to display the characters that precede the string pattern, -Model*, in a product name. The BirtStr.left( ) function extracts a substring of a specified length, starting from the first character. In this example, the length of the substring to display is equal to the numerical position of the string pattern.
stringPatternPosition = BirtStr.search( "-Model*", row["productName"] );
displayString = BirtStr.left( row["productName"], stringPatternPosition );
If the product name is XMS-ModelA-1234, the expression returns XMS.
BirtStr.toLower
This function converts all letters in a string to lowercase.
Syntax
string BirtStr.toLower( string source )
Parameter
source
String. The string to convert to lowercase.
Returns
String. The specified string in all lowercase letters
Example
The following example displays all the values in the productLine field in lowercase:
BirtStr.toLower( row["productLine"] )
BirtStr.toUpper
This function converts all letters in a string to uppercase.
Syntax
string BirtStr.toUpper( string source )
Parameter
source
String. The string to convert to uppercase.
Returns
String. The specified string in all uppercase letters
Example
The following example displays all the values in the customerName field in uppercase:
BirtStr.toUpper( row["customerName"] )
BirtStr.trim
This function returns a string with all leading and trailing blank characters removed. It does not remove blank characters between words.
Syntax
string BirtStr.trim( string source )
Parameter
source
String. The string from which to remove leading and trailing blank characters.
Returns
String. A string with all leading and trailing blank characters removed.
Example
The following example uses BirtStr.trim( ) to remove all leading and trailing blank characters from values in the FirstName and LastName data fields.
BirtStr.trim( row["FirstName"]) + " " + BirtStr.trim(row["LastName"] )
BirtStr.trimLeft
This function returns a string with all leading and trailing blank characters removed. It does not remove blank characters between words.
Syntax
string BirtStr.trimLeft( string source )
Parameter
source
String. The string from which to remove leading blank characters.
Returns
String. A string with all leading blank characters removed.
Example
The following example concatenates a literal string with each value in the customerName field. BirtStr.trimLeft( ) removes all blank characters preceding the customerName value so that there are no extra blank characters between the literal string and the customerName value.
"Customer name: " + BirtStr.trimLeft( row["customerName"] )
BirtStr.trimRight
This function returns a string with all trailing blank characters removed. It does not remove blank characters between words.
Syntax
string BirtStr.trimRight( string source )
Parameter
source
String. The string from which to remove trailing blank characters.
Returns
String. A string with all trailing blank characters removed.
Example
The following example concatenates each value in the Comment field with a semicolon, then with a value in the Action field. BirtStr.trimRight( ) removes all blank characters after the Comment value so that there are no extra blank characters between the Comment string and the semicolon.
BirtStr.trimRight( row["Comment"]) + "; " + row["Action"] )