Using string length in a if statement within a translation

[Usman Azher]

Hello,

I am building a translation and need help with using a string length function within a if statement. I would like to look at PV1-44 on the input side and see if I get the date/time as YYYYMMDD or YYYYMMDDHHSS. If it comes back as YYYYMMDD I would like to concatenate 0000 so that I have YYYYMMDD0000 on the output side. Otherwise I would like to copy YYYYMMDDHHSS to the output side.

Thank you

Topic

[Keith McLeod]

How about using the format command?

Example:

hcitcl>format “%-012s” 20150515

201505150000

This will right pad with “0” to a length of 12 characters.  No math.  If already 12 characters.

hcitcl>format “%-012s” 201505151234

201505151234

hcitcl>format “%-012s” 2015051512345678

2015051512345678

[Jeff Dinsmore]

To answer your original string length question, you can use something like:

Code:

set dateString 201505180648

if { [string length $dateString] == 12 } {
 # string is 12 characters long
 # do your work here
} else {
 # do something else
}

Or, you could use a switch if there are multiple conditions you may be interested in:

Code:

switch -exact [string length $dateString] {
 8 {
  # string is 8 characters long
  # do something
 }
 12 {
   # string is 12 characters long
   # do something else
 }
 16 {
   # string is 16 characters long
   # do yet another thing
 }
 default {
   # do the default thing
 }
}

Or, you can simply use it to see if your string has any length:

Code:

if { [string length $dateString] } {
 # string is not zero length
 # do your work here
} else {
 # do something else
}

Jeff Dinsmore
Chesapeake Regional Healthcare

[Usman Azher]

I am sorry I do not have much experience with Tcl. Can you explain to me where in the translation I am supposed to insert the format command? Also, is this tcl proc going to be inside the translation or as a pre or post proc?

[Keith McLeod]

You would use something like this in your xlate or use in an xlt proc and use in same location within the xlate.

[Russ Ross]

If you want to play around with another possibility, there is also a DATECOPYOPT available in the xlate drop down that the COPY action is located in.

Setting that option before copying your inbound date field to an outbound field can also be used effectively in some cases and perhaps in the one you described.

Russ Ross
RussRoss318@gmail.com

[Author]

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