REPLACE Function

Syntax

REPLACE x,f,t[,n[,i]]

Parameters

x

Specifies a string expression of a CHARACTER type within which the incidents of the substring f are replaced by the substring t.

f

Specifies a string expression of a CHARACTER type that is replaced within the string x.

t

Specifies a string expression of a CHARACTER type that specifies the substring used to replace the substring f within the string x.

n

Specifies an optional expression of a computational type that identifies a location within the string x from where the compiler begins searching for the substring f. n is converted to FIXED BINARY(31,0).

The default value is 1. When n < 1 or > the length(x), the STRINGRANGE condition is raised if enabled, and the result is a null character string.

i

Specifies an optional computational-type expression that represents the maximum number of times to replace substring f by substring t. i is converted to FIXED BINARY(31,0).

The value of i must be a positive number. The default is 1. When i = 0, all occurrences of the substring f in the string x are replaced by the substring t.

Example

 dcl str char (32);
 dcl s char (32);
 dcl v char (32) var;

 dcl (x,y) fixed bin (15);

 str = 'abc d';
 s = replace(str, ' ', 'x');
 put skip data(s);
 s = replace(str, ' ', 'x', 1 , 12);
 put skip data(s);
 s = replace(str, ' ', 'x', 5 , 0);
 put skip data(s);

 str = 'XXXX';
 v = 'ABc';
 x = 1;
 y = 3;
 str = replace(str, substr(str,1,1), v, x, y);
 put skip data(str);

Will print:

S='abcxd ' ;
S='abcxdxxxxxxxxxxx ' ;
S='abc dxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' ;
STR='ABcABcABcX ' ;