Text functions: Part 4

Overview

Text functions manipulate Text values and return other Text values.

Right

Extracts a substring from a string. Starting from the right-most character, returns the first amount characters of value.

Syntax

Right( value, amount )

The Right function syntax has the following arguments.

Examples

• Right ("Alphabet Soup", 4) returns Soup.

• Right ("Alphabet", 20) return Alphabet.

SortWords

Splits the input text into words, discarding punctuation, and returns a string with the words sorted and capitalized. This can be useful for matching.

Syntax

SortWords( text )

The required argument text must be of type Text.

Example

SortWords("the quick brown fox") returns BROWN FOX QUICK THE.

Soundex

Computes the soundex of a text value.

Syntax

Soundex( value )

The required argument value may be of any type.

Remarks

This function computes the "soundex" of a text value, as defined by Donald Knuth. Soundex is useful for comparing English words (especially English surnames) in a loose fashion, because it transforms many similar names to the same index value.

Use the Soundex function in a deduplication or matching project as follows:

1. Identify the sort/compare steps where you currently use fuzzy matching on a text value, and want to substitute Soundex matching.

2. Insert a Calculate tool upstream of the sort/compare steps.

3. For each field value you want to compare using soundex, assign the expression Soundex(value) to value.

4. In each Window Compare tool, change the Comparison kind (Edit-Distance or Word-by-Word) to Positional, and set the All-or-nothing threshold to 100. Because the soundex function does a "fuzzy mapping" from words to index values, you want an exact match on the soundex value itself.

Examples

• Soundex("JOHN") returns J500.

• Soundex("CHARTIER") returns C636.

• Soundex("BRADY") returns B630.

• Soundex("SPARKS") returns S162.

• Soundex("SPANOS") returns S152.

Soundex2

Computes the soundex of a text value with reference to English names.

Syntax

Soundex2( value )

The required argument value may be of any type.

Remarks

The Soundex2 function is like the Soundex function with some additional processing designed for English names. In order to compare phonetically similar words, it performs replacements like the following before computing the standard Soundex value.

• PH becomes F.

• KN becomes N.

• MAC becomes MC.

Soundex3

Computes the soundex of a text value, with reference to numbers as well as English names.

Syntax

Soundex3( value )

The required argument value may be of any type.

Remarks

The Soundex3 function is identical to the Soundex2 function, except that it supports numbers in addition to words. If you have values with mixed words and numbers, this function will produce results that allow you to distinguish between the two. This is useful for street names, where any digits found are usually the important part. For example, it will produce the following results for these inputs:

• GRANT becomes G653.

• MAIN becomes N500.

• 1ST becomes 1.

• 64TH AVE becomes 64.

• WASHINGTON becomes W252.

Substitute

Returns value, modified such that all occurrences of characters in find have been replaced with corresponding characters in replace_with.

Syntax

Substitute( value, find, replace_with )

The Substitute function syntax has the following arguments.

Remarks

The Substitute function operates on value, looking for all occurrences of characters in the find string, and replacing them with corresponding characters in the replace_with string.

Both the find and replace_with strings may contain one or more ranges, representing larger sets of characters. Ranges take the form:

• a-z (for lowercase letters)

• A-Z (for uppercase letters)

• 0-9 (for digits)

The dash character ("-") in the find and replace_with strings is interpreted specially. If you want to include a literal dash character in either string, place it at the beginning or end of the string.

The number of characters in the find and replace_with string must be identical (unless replace_with is empty or contains a single character).

Examples

• Substitute("John Smith", "a-z", "A-Z") returns JOHN SMITH.

• Substitute("a,b.c/d;e", ",./;", " ") returns a b c d e.

• Substitute("(123)456-7890", "()-", "") returns 1234567890.

• Substitute("1234567890", "0-9", "A-J") returns ABCDEFGHIJ.

• Substitute("1234567890", "0-9", "A-J") returns ABCDEFGHIJ.

• Substitute("1234567890", "0-9", "X") returns XXXXXXXXXX.

SubString

Returns a substring of value, starting at position.

Syntax

SubString( value, position, length )

The SubString function syntax has the following arguments.

Remarks

The position and length arguments can be any expression, even those involving fields. Positions are one-based. Fewer characters than length may be returned if value does not contain position + length characters.

Examples

• SubString( "Acme Software", 6, 4 ) returns Soft.

• Substring( "Acme Software", 6, 100 ) returns Software.

• Substring( NAME, POSITION, SIZE) extracts SIZE characters from NAME starting at POSITION.

TitleCase

Returns text, with the first letter of each word capitalized, and all other letters lowercase.

Syntax

TitleCase( text )

The required argument value must be of type Text.

Example

TitleCase( "JOHN SMITH" ) returns John Smith.

TitleCase2

Returns text, with the first letter of each word capitalized, and all other letters lowercase, taking into account some special cases of (Western) names.

Syntax

TitleCase2( text )

The required argument value must be of type Text.

Example

• TitleCase2( "JOHN SMITH" ) returns John Smith.

• TitleCase2( "JOHN MACDOUGAL" ) returns John MacDougal.

• TitleCase2( "JOHN O'BRIAN" ) returns John O'Brian.

Trim

Removes leading and trailing trim characters from the value, and returns the resulting text string. When trim_chars is omitted, returns value with the leading and trailing blanks removed. When trim_chars is specified, returns value with all leading and trailing trim_chars characters removed.

Syntax

• Trim( value )

• Trim( value, trim_chars )

The Trim function syntax has the following arguments.

Remarks

The required value argument is any valid text expression. Note that trim_chars may contain more than one character. You can, for example, remove both tabs and spaces in one function call.

Examples

• Trim( " Acme Software ") returns Acme Software.

• Trim( " Ajax Motors**" , "* " ) returns Ajax Motors.

TrimLeft

Removes leading characters from value, and returns the resulting text string. When trim_chars is omitted, returns value with the leading blanks removed. When trim_chars is specified, returns value with all leading trim_chars characters removed.

Syntax

• TrimLeft( value )

• TrimLeft( value, trim_chars )

The TrimLeft function syntax has the following arguments.

Remarks

The required value argument is any valid text expression. Note that trim_chars may contain more than one character. You can, for example, remove both tabs and spaces in one function call.

Examples

• TrimLeft( " Acme Software ") returns Acme Software .

• TrimLeft( " *Ajax Motors**" , "* " ) returns Ajax Motors**.

TrimRight

Removes trailing characters from value, and returns the resulting text string. When trim_chars is omitted, returns value with the trailing blanks removed. When trim_chars is specified, returns value with all trailing trim_chars characters removed.

Syntax

• TrimRight( value )

• TrimRight( value, trim_chars )

The TrimRight function syntax has the following arguments.

Remarks

The required value argument is any valid text expression. Note that trim_chars may contain more than one character. You can, for example, remove both tabs and spaces in one function call.

Examples

• TrimRight( " Acme Software ") returns Acme Software.

• TrimRight( " *Ajax Motors** " , "* " ) returns *Ajax Motors.

UpperCase

Returns value that has been converted to uppercase.

Syntax

UpperCase( value )

The required argument value may be of any type.

Remarks

Only lowercase letters are converted to uppercase; all uppercase letters and non-letter characters remain unchanged.

Example

• UpperCase( "3482 Walnut Street" ) returns 3482 WALNUT STREET.