%scanrpl

[gregwga50]

I have an account# that I want to strip out the dash from the first 16 positions and put the remainder in a 15 character field (DL27)

The account number is 003-0001-001-001-250-01

When I execute
DL27 = %Scanrpl('-':'':djacct:1:16);

it populates DL27 with '0030001001001-2'

So apparentlly it strips out the dash from the 1st 16 positions which produces a 13 character string which it populates into the leftmost 13 pos of DL27 and then continues populating DL27 with the remaing characters after pos 16 of DJACCT until DL27 is filled. I only want the 1st 16 positions of djacct. I guess I have to use %Substr along with %Scanrpl or is there a better option.

[BryanLeaman]

Re: %scanrpl

No better option I know of. You were telling it to do the replacement in the 1st 16 positions of the field, so instead you'll need to use both BIFs. This should work:

DL27 = %Scanrpl('-':'':%subst(djacct:1:16));

[tomliotta]

Re: %scanrpl

it populates DL27 with '0030001001001-2'

That shows us what you get. Can you show us what you want?

I only want the 1st 16 positions of djacct.

What is "positions"? Do you mean that you want the first 16 digits? (Into a 15 character field??)

Are you saying that you only want characters from the first 16 bytes that are not minus symbols? If so, you're probably right that you have to tell the function to only consider the beginning substring. As coded, you're telling the function to return the value after replacing the minus symbols in the first 16 positions. After it does that, the intermediate value becomes 20 bytes long. The first 15 bytes fit into your result variable.

[Robert Clay]

Re: %scanrpl

If I'm reading this correctly, you want to A) strip out the '-' characters--all of them. Then, B) you want the first 15 characters of the result.

So, try something like...

DL27 = %SubSt(%ScanRpl('-':'':djacct):1:15);

HTH,
Robert

EDIT:
Upon re-reading your original post, maybe this:

DL27 = %ScanRpl('-':'':%SubSt(djacct:1:16));

...because you are only concerned with the first 16 characters of the original account number (which includes the dashes)?