SETLEFT        Extract left substring

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Syntax:

SETLEFT

[ variable ]  =  [ value ] [ cnt ] [ /options ]

Arguments:

[ variable ]

Variable to assign; if the variable does not previously exist it is created.

 

[ value ]

Variable or string defining the value from which the substring is to be extracted.

 

[ cnt ]

Variable, string, or numeric constant defining the length of the substring; this value must resolve to a numeric value less than or equal to the length of [ value ].

Options:

/split

Save the unextracted portion of the string back in [ value ].

 

 

This script command extracts the leftmost [ cnt ] characters from [ value ] and saves the result in [ variable ].

 

If the /split option is specified, the unextracted portion of [ variable ] is assigned back to [ variable ] replacing the original value.

 

Consider the following example.

 

       ;; assign a variable to a string

       SET string = "this is a string"

       ;; extract the leftmost 4 characters

       SETLEFT substring = string "4"

 

The resulting substring variable contains the value "this". The original string variable is unchanged.

 

Consider the same example using the /split option.

 

       ;; assign a variable to a string

       SET string = "this is a string"

       ;; extract the leftmost 4 characters

       SETLEFT substring = string "4" /split

 

The resulting substring variable contains the value "this" and the original string variable has be reassigned to " is a string".

 

Related Command(s):        SET, SETRIGHT, SETMID