filtering non-alphanumeric chars in processing

[Richard Kreiss]

Top post:

Bruce,

Have you considered using xlate() to remove all of the acceptable characters.  If the resulting filed is blank, do nothing.

If it isn't blank, you will have all of the characters you want to replace with a space. 

Using the xlate field to replace the character with a space.

Qq=xlate(a,"~"," ") - this would replace the tilde with a space. Or you could use asc() or chr() for the character to be replaced.

Keep looping through the field which contains the characters to be replaced.

Just a thought.

Richard Kreiss

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Filepro-list [mailto:filepro-list-
> bounces+rkreiss=verizon.net at lists.celestial.com] On Behalf Of Bruce Easton
> Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 2:22 PM
> To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> Subject: Re: filtering non-alphanumeric chars in processing
> 
> Yeah, that was one option I was considering and may yet test for runtime
> efficiency.  The requirement turned out to be a little different in the end
> though.  What was needed was not squishing, but to replace the non-
> alphanumeric with a space as it gets fed to the output string. For now, I'm
> testing with a simple edit assignment:
> 
> Then:  an(1,alnum)=x
> Then:  x=an      'should get original char (even if space), or space
> from edit failure
> 
> Bruce
> 
> On 2/26/15 1:35 PM, Scott Nelson wrote:
> > Test each character for it's ascii value v the desired range:
> >
> > ::l="'1"
> > loop:l eq "100":end
> > ::c=mid(f,l,"1");d=asc(c)
> > :(d ge "48" and d le "57") or (d ge "65" and d le "90") or (d ge "97"
> > and d le "122"):   do something to keep this digit
> > :::  or do something else
> > :::l=l+"1";goto loop
> >
> >
> > Scott
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 02/26/2015 12:03 PM, Bruce Easton wrote:
> >> I need to filter out (squish out) non-alphanumeric characters from
> >> small array-element strings in processing for a large amount of data.
> >>
> >> Since I am already having to, for other purposes form each string
> >> character by character, I'm wondering which might be more efficient
> >> at runtime (or if there would even be any noticeable difference).
> >>
> >> For each character, I could test its inclusion in the desired ascii
> >> range using the asc() function; or for each, I could set an
> >> "okstring" to "0123...9abc...z" and then test if the char is
> >> contained in said okstring; or for each, I could apply the char to a
> >> dummy with the alnum edit and then test if the dummy is left blank.
> >>
> >> Just wondering out loud.  I haven't tried any of these against a
> >> large data set - but ultimately this will be used for such, so I
> >> should soon know.  I have a feeling testing against the edit result
> >> might be the most efficient.
> >>
> >> Bruce
> >>
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