String Functions

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For detailed information about date formatting and/or parsing see Data and Time Format.
For detailed information about formatting and/or parsing of any numeric data type see Numeric Format.
For detailed information about locale see Locale.

	Note
Remember that numeric and date formats are displayed using system value Locale or Locale specified in the `defaultProperties` file, unless other Locale is explicitly specified. For more information on how Locale may be changed in the `defaultProperties` see Changing Default CloudConnect Settings.

string charAt(string arg, integer index);
The charAt(string, integer) function accepts two arguments: the first is string and the second is integer. It takes the string and returns the character that is located at the position specified by the index.

string chop(string arg);
The chop(string) function accepts one string argument. The function takes this argument, removes the line feed and the carriage return characters from the end of the string specified as the argument and returns the new string without these characters.

string chop(string arg1, string arg2);
The chop(string, string) function accepts two string arguments. It takes the first argument, removes the string specified as the second argument from the end of the first argument and returns the first string argument without the string specified as the second argument.

string concat(string arg1, string ..., string argN);
The concat(string, ..., string) function accepts unlimited number of arguments of string data type. It takes these arguments and returns their concatenation. You can also concatenate these arguments using plus signs, but this function is faster for more than two arguments.

integer countChar(string arg, string character);
The countChar(string, string) function accepts two arguments: the first is string and the second is one character. It takes them and returns the number of occurrences of the character specified as the second argument in the string specified as the first argument.

string[] cut(string arg, integer[] indeces);
The cut(string, integer[]) function accepts two arguments: the first is string and the second is list of integers. The function returns a list of strings. The number of elements of the list specified as the second argument must be even. The integers in the list serve as position (each number in the odd position) and length (each number in the even position). Substrings of the specified length are taken from the string specified as the first argument starting from the specified position (excluding the character at the specified position). The resulting substrings are returned as list of strings. For example, cut("somestringasanexample",[2,3,1,5]) returns ["mes","omest"].

integer editDistance(string arg1, string arg2);
The editDistance(string, string) function accepts two string arguments. These strings will be compared to each other. The strength of comparison is 4 by default, the default value of locale for comparison is the system value and the maximum difference is 3 by default.
The function returns the number of letters that should be changed to transform one of the two arguments to the other. However, when the function is being executed, if it counts that the number of letters that should be changed is at least the number specified as the maximum difference, the execution terminates and the function returns maxDifference + 1 as the return value.
For more details, see another version of the editDistance() function below - the editDistance (string, string, integer, string, integer) function.

integer editDistance(string arg1, string arg2, string locale);
The editDistance(string, string, string) function accepts three arguments. The first two are strings that will be compared to each other and the third (string) is the locale that will be used for comparison. The default strength of comparison is 4. The maximum difference is 3 by default.
The function returns the number of letters that should be changed to transform one of the first two arguments to the other. However, when the function is being executed, if it counts that the number of letters that should be changed is at least the number specified as the maximum difference, the execution terminates and the function returns maxDifference + 1 as the return value.
For more details, see another version of the editDistance() function below - the editDistance (string, string, integer, string, integer) function.
See http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.6.0/docs/api/java/util/Locale.html for details about Locale.

integer editDistance(string arg1, string arg2, integer strength);
The editDistance(string, string, integer) function accepts three arguments. The first two are strings that will be compared to each other and the third (integer) is the strength of comparison. The default locale that will be used for comparison is the system value. The maximum difference is 3 by default.
The function returns the number of letters that should be changed to transform one of the first two arguments to the other. However, when the function is being executed, if it counts that the number of letters that should be changed is at least the number specified as the maximum difference, the execution terminates and the function returns maxDifference + 1 as the return value.
For more details, see another version of the editDistance() function below - the editDistance (string, string, integer, string, integer) function.

integer editDistance(string arg1, string arg2, integer strength, string locale);
The editDistance(string, string, integer, string) function accepts four arguments. The first two are strings that will be compared to each other, the third (integer) is the strength of comparison and the fourth (string) is the locale that will be used for comparison. The maximum difference is 3 by default.
The function returns the number of letters that should be changed to transform one of the first two arguments to the other. However, when the function is being executed, if it counts that the number of letters that should be changed is at least the number specified as the maximum difference, the execution terminates and the function returns maxDifference + 1 as the return value.
For more details, see another version of the editDistance() function below - the editDistance (string, string, integer, string, integer) function.
See http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.6.0/docs/api/java/util/Locale.html for details about Locale.

integer editDistance(string arg1, string arg2, string locale, integer maxDifference);
The editDistance(string, string, string, integer) function accepts four arguments. The first two are strings that will be compared to each other, the third (string) is the locale that will be used for comparison and the fourth (integer) is the maximum difference. The strength of comparison is 4 by default.
The function returns the number of letters that should be changed to transform one of the first two arguments to the other. However, when the function is being executed, if it counts that the number of letters that should be changed is at least the number specified as the maximum difference, the execution terminates and the function returns maxDifference + 1 as the return value.
For more details, see another version of the editDistance() function below - the editDistance (string, string, integer, string, integer) function.
See http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.6.0/docs/api/java/util/Locale.html for details about Locale.

integer editDistance(string arg1, string arg2, integer strength, integer maxDifference);
The editDistance(string, string, integer, integer) function accepts four arguments. The first two are strings that will be compared to each other and the two others are both integers. These are the strength of comparison (third argument) and the maximum difference (fourth argument). The locale is the default system value.
The function returns the number of letters that should be changed to transform one of the first two arguments to the other. However, when the function is being executed, if it counts that the number of letters that should be changed is at least the number specified as the maximum difference, the execution terminates and the function returns maxDifference + 1 as the return value.
For more details, see another version of the editDistance() function below - the editDistance (string, string, integer, string, integer) function.

integer editDistance(string arg1, string arg2, integer strength, string locale, integer maxDifference);
The editDistance(string, string, integer, string, integer) function accepts five arguments. The first two are strings, the three others are integer, string and integer, respectively. The function takes the first two arguments and compares them to each other using the other three arguments.
The third argument (integer number) specifies the strength of comparison. It can have any value from 1 to 4.
If it is 4 (identical comparison), that means that only identical letters are considered equal. In case of 3 (tertiary comparison), that means that upper and lower cases are considered equal. If it is 2 (secondary comparison), that means that letters with diacritical marks are considered equal. Last, if the strength of comparison is 1 (primary comparison), that means that even the letters with some specific signs are considered equal. In other versions of the editDistance() function where this strength of comparison is not specified, the number 4 is used as the default strength (see above).
The fourth argument is the string data type. It is the locale that serves for comparison. If no locale is specified in other versions of the editDistance() function, its default value is the system value (see above).
The fifth argument (integer number) means the number of letters that should be changed to transform one of the first two arguments to the other. If another version of the editDistance() function does not specify this maximum difference, the default maximum difference is number 3 (see above).
The function returns the number of letters that should be changed to transform one of the first two arguments to the other. However, when the function is being executed, if it counts that the number of letters that should be changed is at least the number specified as the maximum difference, the execution terminates and the function returns maxDifference + 1 as the return value.
Actually the function is implemented for the following locales: CA, CZ, ES, DA, DE, ET, FI, FR, HR, HU, IS, IT, LT, LV, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, SQ, SV, TR. These locales have one thing in common: they all contain language-specific characters. A complete list of these characters can be examined in CTL2 Appendix - List of National-specific Characters
See http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.6.0/docs/api/java/util/Locale.html for details about Locale.

string escapeUrl(string arg);
The function escapes illegal characters within components of specified URL (see isUrl() CTL2 function for the URL component description). Illegal characters must be escaped by a percent character % symbol, followed by the two-digit hexadecimal representation (case-insensitive) of the ISO-Latin code point for the character, e.g., %20 is the escaped encoding for the US-ASCII space character.

string[] find(string arg, string regex);
The find(string, string) function accepts two string arguments. The second one is regular expression. The function takes them and returns a list of substrings corresponding to the regex pattern that are found in the string specified as the first argument.

string getAlphanumericChars(string arg);
The getAlphanumericChars(string) function takes one string argument and returns only letters and digits contained in the string argument in the order of their appearance in the string. The other characters are removed.

string getAlphanumericChars(string arg, boolean takeAlpha, boolean takeNumeric);
The getAlphanumericChars(string, boolean, boolean) function accepts three arguments: one string and two booleans. It takes them and returns letters and/or digits if the second and/or the third arguments, respectively, are set to true.

string getFieldLabel(reference record, string arg);
The function returns a label of a field whose name is specified in arg. The fields are taken from record.

string getFieldLabel(reference record, integer arg);
The function returns a label of a field whose index is specified in arg. The fields are taken from record.

string getUrlHost(string arg);
The function parses out host name from specified URL (see isUrl() CTL2 function for the scheme). If the hostname part is not present in the URL argument, an empty string is returned. If the URL is not valid, null is returned.

string getUrlPath(string arg);
The function parses out path from specified URL (see isUrl() CTL2 function for the scheme). If the path part is not present in the URL argument, an empty string is returned. If the URL is not valid, null is returned.

integer getUrlPort(string arg);
The function parses out port number from specified URL (see isUrl() CTL2 function for the scheme). If the port part is not present in the URL argument, -1 is returned. If the URL has invalid syntax, -2 is returned.

string getUrlProtocol(string arg);
The function parses out protocol name from specified URL (see isUrl() CTL2 function for the scheme). If the protocol part is not present in the URL argument, an empty string is returned. If the URL is not valid, null is returned.

string getUrlQuery(string arg);
The function parses out query (parameters) from specified URL (see isUrl() CTL2 function for the scheme). If the query part is not present in the URL argument, an empty string is returned. If the URL syntax is invalid, null is returned.

string getUrlUserInfo(string arg);
The function parses out username and password from specified URL (see isUrl() CTL2 function for the scheme). If the userinfo part is not present in the URL argument, an empty string is returned. If the URL syntax is invalid, null is returned.

string getUrlRef(string arg);
The function parses out fragment after # character, also known as ref, reference or anchor, from specified URL (see isUrl() CTL2 function for the scheme). If the fragment part is not present in the URL argument, an empty string is returned. If the URL syntax is invalid, null is returned.

integer indexOf(string arg, string substring);
The indexOf(string, string) function accepts two strings. It takes them and returns the index of the first appearance of substring in the string specified as the first argument.

integer indexOf(string arg, string substring, integer fromIndex);
The indexOf(string, string, integer) function accepts three arguments: two strings and one integer. It takes them and returns the index of the first appearance of substring counted from the character located at the position specified by the third argument.

boolean isAscii(string arg);
The isAscii(string) function takes one string argument and returns a boolean value depending on whether the string can be encoded as an ASCII string (true) or not (false).

boolean isBlank(string arg);
The isBlank(string) function takes one string argument and returns a boolean value depending on whether the string contains only white space characters (true) or not (false).

boolean isDate(string arg, string pattern);
The isDate(string, string) function accepts two string arguments. It takes them, compares the first argument with the second as a pattern and, if the first string can be converted to a date which is valid within system value of locale, according to the specified pattern, the function returns true. If it is not possible, it returns false.
(For more details, see another version of the isDate() function below - the isDate(string, string, string, boolean) function.)
This function is a variant of the mentioned isDate(string, string, string) function in which the default value of the third argument is set to system value.

boolean isDate(string arg, string pattern, string locale);
The isDate(string, string, string) function accepts three string arguments. It takes them, compares the first argument with the second as a pattern, use the third argument (locale) and, if the first string can be converted to a date which is valid within specified locale, according to the specified pattern, the function returns true. If it is not possible, it returns false.
(For more details, see another version of the isDate() function below - the isDate(string, string, string, boolean) function.)
See http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.6.0/docs/api/java/util/Locale.html for details about Locale.

boolean isInteger(string arg);
The isInteger(string) function takes one string argument and returns a boolean value depending on whether the string can be converted to an integer number (true) or not (false).

boolean isLong(string arg);
The isLong(string) function takes one string argument and returns a boolean value depending on whether the string can be converted to a long number (true) or not (false).

boolean isNumber(string arg);
The isNumber(string) function takes one string argument and returns a boolean value depending on whether the string can be converted to a double (true) or not (false).

boolean isUrl(string arg);

The function checks whether specified string is a valid URL of the following syntax

            
foo://username:passw@host.com:8042/there/index.dtb?type=animal;name=cat#nose
\_/   \____________/ \______/ \__/\______________/ \__________________/ \__/
 |           |          |      |         |                  |             |
protocol  userinfo     host   port      path               query         ref

See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt for more info about the URI standards.

string join(string delimiter, <element type>[] arg);
The join(string, <element type>[]) function accepts two arguments. The first is string, the second is a list of elements of any data type. The elements that are not strings are converted to their string representation and put together with the first argument as delimiter.

string join(string delimiter, map[<type of key>,<type of value>] arg);
The join(string, map[<type of key>,<type of value>]) function accepts two arguments. The first is string, the second is a map of any data types. The map elements are displayed as key=value strings. These are put together with the first argument as delimiter.

string left(string arg, integer length);
The left(string, integer) function accepts two arguments: the first is string and the second is integer. It takes them and returns the substring of the length specified as the second argument counted from the start of the string specified as the first argument. If the input string is shorter than the length parameter, an exception is thrown and the graph fails. To avoid such failure, use the left(string, integer, boolean) function described below.

string left(string arg, integer length, boolean spacePad);
The function returns prefix of the specified length. If the input string is longer or equally long as the length parameter, the function behaves the same way as the left(string, integer) function. There is different behaviour if the input string is shorter than the specified length. If the 3^th argument is true, the right side of the result is padded with blank spaces so that the result has specified length beeing left justified. Whereas if false, the input string is returned as the result with no space added.

integer length(structuredtype arg);
The length(structuredtype) function accepts a structured data type as its argument: string, <element type>[], map[<type of key>,<type of value>] or record. It takes the argument and returns a number of elements forming the structured data type.

string lowerCase(string arg);
The lowerCase(string) function takes one string argument and returns another string with cases converted to lower cases only.

boolean matches(string arg, string regex);
The matches(string, string) function takes two string arguments. The second argument is some regular expression. If the first argument can be expressed with such regular expression, the function returns true, otherwise it is false.

string metaphone(string arg, integer maxLength);
The metaphone(string, integer) function accepts one string argument and one integer meaning the maximum length. The function takes these arguments and returns the metaphone code of the first argument of the specified maximum length. The default maximum length is 4. For more information, see the following site: www.lanw.com/java/phonetic/default.htm.

string NYSIIS(string arg);
The NYSIIS(string) function takes one string argument and returns the New York State Identification and Intelligence System Phonetic Code of the argument. For more information, see the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Identification_and_Intelligence_System.

string randomString(integer minLength, integer maxLength);
The randomString(integer, integer) function takes two integer arguments and returns strings composed of lowercase letters whose length varies between minLength and maxLength. These resulting strings are generated at random for records and fields. They can be different for both different records and different fields. Their length can also be equal to minLength or maxLength, however, they can be neither shorter than minLength nor longer than maxLength.

string randomUUID();
Generates a random but undoubtedly unique string identifier. The generated string has this format:
hhhhhhhh-hhhh-hhhh-hhhh-hhhhhhhhhhhh
where h belongs to [0-9a-f]. In other words, you generate a hexadecimal code of a random 128bit number.
Example generated string: cee188a3-aa67-4a68-bcd2-52f3ec0329e6
For more details on the algorithm used, browse the Java documentation.

string removeBlankSpace(string arg);
The removeBlankSpace(string) function takes one string argument and returns another string with white spaces removed.

string removeDiacritic(string arg);
The removeDiacritic(string) function takes one string argument and returns another string with diacritical marks removed.

string removeNonAscii(string arg);
The removeNonAscii(string) function takes one string argument and returns another string with non-ascii characters removed.

string removeNonPrintable(string arg);
The removeNonPrintable(string) function takes one string argument and returns another string with non-printable characters removed.

string replace(string arg, string regex, string replacement);
The replace(string, string, string) function takes three string arguments - a string, a regular expression, and a replacement - and replaces all regex matches inside the string with the replacement string you specified. All parts of the string that match the regex are replaced. You can also reference the matched text using a backreference in the replacement string. A backreference to the entire match is indicated as $0. If there are capturing parentheses, you can reference specifics groups as $1, $2, $3, etc.
replace("Hello","[Ll]","t") returns "Hetto"
replace("Hello", "e(l+)", "a$1") returns "Hallo"
Important - please beware of similar syntax of $0, $1 etc. While used inside the replacement string it refers to matching regular expression parenthesis (in order). If used outside a string, it means a reference to an input field. See other example:
replace("Hello", "e(l+)", $0.name) returns HJohno if input field "name" on port 0 contains the name "John".
You can also use modifier in the start of the regular expression: (?i) for case-insensitive search, (?m) for multiline mode or (?s) for "dotall" mode where a dot (".") matches even a newline character
replace("Hello", "(?i)L", "t") will produce Hetto while replace("Hello", "L", "t") will just produce Hello

string right(string arg, integer length);
The right(string, integer) function accepts two arguments: the first is string and the second is integer. It takes them and returns the substring of the length specified as the second argument counted from the end of the string specified as the first argument. If the input string is shorter than the length parameter, an exception is thrown and the graph fails. To avoid such failure, use the right(string, integer, boolean) function described below.

string right(string arg, integer length, boolean spacePad);
The function returns suffix of the specified length. If the input string is longer or equally long as the length parameter, the function behaves the same way as the right(string, integer) function. There is different behaviour if the input string is shorter than the specified length. If the 3^th argument is true, the left side of the result is padded with blank spaces so that the result has specified length beeing right justified. Whereas if false, the input string is returned as the result with no space added.

string soundex(string arg);
The soundex(string) function takes one string argument and converts the string to another. The resulting string consists of the first letter of the string specified as the argument and three digits. The three digits are based on the consonants contained in the string when similar numbers correspond to similarly sounding consonants. Thus, soundex("word") returns "w600".

string[] split(string arg, string regex);
The split(string, string) function accepts two string arguments. The second is some regular expression. It is searched in the first string argument and if it is found, the string is split into the parts located between the characters or substrings of such a regular expression. The resulting parts of the string are returned as a list of strings. Thus, split("abcdefg", "[ce]") returns ["ab", "d", "fg"].

string substring(string arg, integer fromIndex, integer length);
The substring(string, integer, integer) function accepts three arguments: the first is string and the other two are integers. The function takes the arguments and returns a substring of the defined length obtained from the original string by getting the length number of characters starting from the position defined by the second argument. Thus, substring("text", 1, 2) returns "ex".

string translate(string arg, string searchingSet, string replaceSet);
The translate(string, string, string) function accepts three string arguments. The number of characters must be equal in both the second and the third arguments. If some character from the string specified as the second argument is found in the string specified as the first argument, it is replaced by a character taken from the string specified as the third argument. The character from the third string must be at the same position as the character in the second string. Thus, translate("hello", "leo", "pii") returns "hippi".

string trim(string arg);
The trim(string) function takes one string argument and returns another string with leading and trailing white spaces removed.

string unescapeUrl(string arg);
The function decodes escape sequences of illegal characters within components of specified URL (see isUrl() CTL2 function for the URL component description). Escape sequences consist of a percent character % symbol, followed by the two-digit hexadecimal representation (case-insensitive) of the ISO-Latin code point for the character, e.g., %20 is the escaped encoding for the US-ASCII space character.

string upperCase(string arg);
The upperCase(string) function takes one string argument and returns another string with cases converted to upper cases only.

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