COBOL String Scan

[TedHolt]

I wish COBOL had an intrinsic function like RPG's %SCAN. QCLSCAN has a too many parameters. This is the best I could come up. Anybody got anything better?

Look for a decimal point in X-Value.

01  X-Value        pic x(10).         
01  P-Ndx          pic s9(4)   binary.           

move zero to P-Ndx               
inspect X-Value tallying P-Ndx   
        for characters before '.'
add 1 to P-Ndx                   
if P-Ndx > length of X-Value 
    move zero to P-Ndx       

end-if

[B.Hauser]

Re: COBOL String Scan

What about using SQL scalar Functions such as LOCATE?
Syntax Locate(Search, String, Start) - 3rd parameter is optional - Returns the postition of the first occurence.

Exec SQL set :Pos = Locate('X', :MyString, :StrPos)
End-Exec.

Birgitta

[tomliotta]

Re: COBOL String Scan

A function version of INSPECT would be nice. Then again, it'd sometimes be nice if %scan() did everything INSPECT can do. Win some; lose some.

In general, I'd do it similar to what you've done. One minor change: I'd possibly initialize P-Ndx to (1) rather than zero if you always want to indicate the position of the decimal point, and then remove the ADD statement. Maybe, maybe not.

[TedHolt]

Re: COBOL String Scan

Exec SQL set :Pos = Locate('X', :MyString, :StrPos)
End-Exec.

Good idea, Birgitta.

[TedHolt]

Re: COBOL String Scan

One minor change: I'd possibly initialize P-Ndx to (1) rather than zero if you always want to indicate the position of the decimal point, and then remove the ADD statement.

I like that minor change, Tom. I'm so used to setting the counter variable to zero before inspecting, it didn't occur to me to set it to 1.