Conference ilbbak::ibi_focus

473.0. "Temp Fix for soft concatenation problem." by HAMSTR::BAMFORTH () Thu Oct 24 1991 16:59

    
    FOCUS VERSION 6.1 no longer performs certain soft concatenation
    correctly.  
    
    e.g.  given  FIRST_NAME/A20 = 'JOHN'; 
                 LAST_NAME/A15  = 'DOE'; 
    
    the following operation 
    
                 FULL_NAME/A36  = FIRST_NAME || ' ' | LAST_NAME; 
    
    no longer produces    'JOHN DOE' 
    but instead produces  'JOHN                 DOE' 
    
    
    The following is a work-around for this problem.
     
    DEFINE FILE yourfile 
    
        FIRST_NAME/A20   = 'JOHN';
        LAST_NAME/A15    = 'DOE';
    
        END_POS/I2       = POSIT(FIRST_NAME,20,'  ',2,END_POS);
     
 -*                                             ^^ 2 spaces above
        FULL_NAME/A36    = FIRST_NAME; 
        FULL_NAME        = OVRLAY(FULL_NAME,36,LAST_NAME,15,END_POS+1, 
                                  FULL_NAME); 
    END 
    
                       
    
     END_POS returns the position immediately following the last non-blank
     character in FIRST_NAME. 
    
     OVRLAY overlays the LAST_NAME string at END_POS + 1, leaving a space 
     between the first and last names. 
    
    

    Even easier...
    
                 FULL_NAME/A36  = FIRST_NAME || (' ' | LAST_NAME);
    
    
    
    Paul K

    
    Excellent, I didn't even think to try this...