Conference ilbbak::ibi_focus

206.0. "Trailing Blanks with & vars" by TOLKIN::HOLLOCHER (The Children, They Were Learnin') Mon Apr 24 1989 10:23

    
    I have a problem that seems simple at first, but has continued to
    cause problems.
    
    In Dialogue manager I wasnt to concatenate several '&' variables together
    to make a file name.  The problem is the trailing blanks. 
    
    For example   -SET &FILENAME = &A||&B||.TXT;
    
    The variable &A and &B were entered via a CRTFORM, so the formats
    have been set.  So, if &A and/or &B have trailing blanks, the file
    name is invalid.
    
    I have tried various combinations of functions to extract the non-blank
    string.  The problem is that the receiving & field seems to be forced
    to the same format as the sending & field, thus retaining the blanks.
    
    Thank You for any help you can provide.

    
    I talked to IBI.  To get a "hard" concatenation you must use |||
    instead of || .  This is only a temporary "get-around" to the bug.
    

    You can also leave a space after the &variable and before the hard
    concatenation symbol, ||.
    
    	ex: -SET &FILENAME=&A ||&B ||'.DAT';