TrimAt ( text ; delimiter ; occurrence )

returns all text preceding the specified occurrence of the specified delimiter

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Jeff Drake - Show more from this author
Drakeling Technologies

Sample input:

TrimAt ( "Mississippi" ; "i" ; 3 )

Sample output:

Mississ

Function definition: (Copy & paste into FileMaker's Edit Custom Function window)

/*
=======================================================
    TrimAt ©2005-2014 Drakeling Technologies
    Creation: 2005 by Jeff Drake
    Modification: 2009 by Jeff Drake
    Modification: 25 November 2014 by Jeff Drake

    Purpose: Trim the specified text at the specified characters.

    Example:
    • TrimAt ( "Mississippi" ; "i" ; 3 ) = "Mississ"
    • TrimAt ( "Mississippi" ; "s" ; 1 ) = "Mi"
    • TrimAt ( "Mississippi" ; "p" ; -2 ) = "Mississip"

    Dependencies: none
=======================================================
*/


Let ( [
         #tLength = Length ( text ) ;
         #sPosition = If ( occurrence > 0 ; 1 ; #tLength ) ;
         #dPosition = Position ( text ; delimiter ; #sPosition ; occurrence )

] ; //end define Let

   Case (

      //If the delimiter doesn’t exist in the string, return nothing.
      PatternCount ( text ; delimiter ) = 0 ;

         $null ;

      //If the delimiter doesn’t exist often enough in the string, return nothing.
      PatternCount ( text ; delimiter ) < Abs ( occurrence ) ;

         $null ;

      //Otherwise, trim the value at the [occurrence]th delimiter.
         Left ( text ; #dPosition - 1 )

   ) //end Case

) //end Let

This function acts like Left, but uses the Position of the specified delimiter as a point of reference. If the occurrence parameter is:

• a positive integer, the value returned will be all characters preceding that occurrence of the delimiter, moving forwards from the first character of the original text.

• a negative integer, the value returned will be all characters preceding that occurrence of the delimiter, moving backwards from the last character of the original text.

• Any other value returns an empty string.

Comments

		Razor Jan 21, 2019
Perfect. Does exactly what I needed it to do. Thanks!

Note: these functions are not guaranteed or supported by BrianDunning.com. Please contact the individual developer with any questions or problems.

TrimAt ( text ; delimiter ; occurrence )

Comments

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