Character Functions
Formulas can also be used for calculating or translating information into a different format for display in forms and reports. In standard reporting, these functions are useful sometimes in displaying values in columns in a format other than the default. The following operators and functions are available for manipulating character string information:
| Function | Description |
|---|---|
| + | The plus sign operator can combine two or more character values. For example, LastName + ',' + FirstName |
| Character(expression) | This function returns the expression converted to a character string. For example, Character(Age) + ' Years Old' |
| LeftString(characterstring, numchars) | This function returns the leftmost numchar characters of characterstring. For example, LeftString(ID, 4) takes the first four characters of the ID field. |
| LengthString(characterstring) | Returns the length of characterstring. For example, LengthString(ID) returns the number of characters in the ID field. |
| LowerString(characterstring) | Returns the same string converted to lower case. |
| PositionString(searchstring, teststring) | This function returns the character index (starting at one) of the first occurrence of searchstring in teststring, or zero if not found. For example, PositionString("Apple", Address) returns non-zero if Address contains the word Apple. |
| ReplaceString(targetstring, searchstring, replacestring) | This function replaces any occurrences of searchstring found in targetstring with replacestring and returns the result. |
| RightString(characterstring, numchars) | This function returns the rightmost numchar characters of characterstring. For example, RightString(ID, 4) returns the right-most four characters of the ID field. |
| StuffString(characterstring, position, numchars, stuffstring) | This function returns a copy of characterstring where the part of the string at the specified starting position and length of numchars has been replaced with stuffstring. For example, StuffString(ID, 2, 5, "XXXXXX") replaces the specified ID field characters with "XXXXXX". |
| SubString(characterstring, startchar, numchars) | This function returns the part of characterstring beginning at the character indicated by startchar and with a length of numchars. For example, SubString(ID, 3, 7) returns the part of the ID field starting with the third character and including up to seven characters if available. The third parameter is optional. For example, SubString(ID,3) returns any available characters starting with the third character. |
| UpperString(characterstring) | Returns the same string converted to upper case. For example, UpperString(Address) returns the address field in an upper case format. |