Caché ObjectScript Reference - InterSystems Documentation

In the following example, both $PIECE functions returns the entire plist string, because thereare no occurrences of delimiter in the plist string:SET colorlist="Red,Green,Blue,Yellow,Orange,Black"SET extract1=$PIECE(colorlist,"#")SET extract2=$PIECE(colorlist,"#",1,4)WRITE "# =",extract1,!,"#,1,4=",extract2The following two examples use more complex delimiters.This example uses a delimiter string “#-#” to return three substrings of the string numlist.Here, the component characters of the delimiter string, “#” and “-”, can be used as data values;only the specified sequence of characters (#-#) is set aside:SET numlist="1#2-3#-#45##6#-#789"WRITE !,$PIECE(numlist,"#-#",1)WRITE !,$PIECE(numlist,"#-#",2)WRITE !,$PIECE(numlist,"#-#",3)The following example uses a non-keyboard delimiter character (in this case, the Unicodecharacter for pi), specified using the $CHAR function, and inserted into the plist string byusing the concatenate operator (_):SET a = $CHAR(960)SET colorlist="Red"_a_"Green"_a_"Blue"SET extract1=$PIECE(colorlist,a)SET extract2=$PIECE(colorlist,a,2)SET extract3=$PIECE(colorlist,a,2,3)WRITE extract1,!,extract2,!,extract3NotesUsing $PIECE to Unpack Data Values$PIECE is typically used to "unpack" data values that contain multiple fields delimited bya separator character. Typical delimiter characters include the slash (/), the comma (,), thespace ( ), and the semicolon (;). The following sample values are good candidates for usewith $PIECE:"John Jones/29 River St./Boston MA, 02095""Mumps;Measles;Chicken Pox;Diptheria""45.23,52.76,89.05,48.27"$PIECE and $LENGTH$PIECEThe two-argument form of $LENGTH returns the number of substrings in a string, basedon a delimiter. Use $LENGTH to determine the number of substrings in a string, and thenuse $PIECE to extract individual substrings, as shown in the following example:Caché ObjectScript Reference 283