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ABAP Keyword Documentation →  ABAP - Reference →  Processing Internal Data →  Character String and Byte String Processing →  Statements for Character String and Byte String Processing →  FIND 

FIND - options

Short Reference

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54

Syntax


...  [{RESPECTING|IGNORING} CASE] 
     [MATCH COUNT  mcnt]
     { {[MATCH OFFSET moff]
        [MATCH LENGTH mlen]}
     | [RESULTS result_tab|result_wa] }
     [SUBMATCHES s1 s2 ...] ...

Extras

1. ... {RESPECTING|IGNORING} CASE

2. ... MATCH COUNT mcnt

3. ... MATCH OFFSET moff

4. ... MATCH LENGTH mlen

5. ... RESULTS result_tab|result_wa

6. ... SUBMATCHES s1 s2 ...

Effect

These additions control the FIND statement and provide advanced evaluation options. You can use the CASE addition to specify whether the search is case-sensitive. You can use the MATCH, SUBMATCHES, and RESULTS additions to determine the number, position, and length of the sequence(s) found.

Addition 1

... {RESPECTING|IGNORING} CASE

Effect

You can use this addition in string processing only. It specifies whether pattern and dobj are to be handled as case-sensitive in the search. When RESPECTING CASE is used, the search is case-sensitive and when IGNORING CASE is used, it is not. If you do not specify either of these additions, RESPECTING CASE is used implicitly. If a regular expression is passed as an object of class CL_ABAP_REGEX for pattern, this addition is not permitted. Instead, the properties of the object are respected by the search.

Addition 2

... MATCH COUNT mcnt

Effect

If the search pattern pattern is found in the search range, the MATCH COUNT addition saves the number of occurrences in the data object mcnt. If FIRST OCCURRENCE is used, this value is always 1 when the search is successful. mcnt expects a variable with data type i. If the search is successful, mcnt is set to 0.

Addition 3

... MATCH OFFSET moff

Effect

If the search pattern pattern is found in the search range, the MATCH OFFSET addition saves the offset of the last occurrence in relation to the dobj operands in the data object moff. If FIRST OCCURRENCE is used, this is the offset of the first occurrence. moff expects a variable of data type i. If the search is not successful, moff retains its previous value.


Note

The system field sy-fdpos is not filled by FIND.

Addition 4

... MATCH LENGTH mlen

Effect

If the search pattern pattern is found in the search range, the MATCH LENGTH addition saves the length of the last substrings found in the data object mlen. If FIRST OCCURRENCE is used, this is the length of the first occurrence mlen expects a variable of data type i. If the search is not successful, mlen retains its previous value.

Addition 5

... RESULTS result_tab|result_wa

Effect

If the search pattern pattern is found in the search range, the RESULTS addition saves the offsets of the occurrences, the lengths of the substrings found, and information about the registers for the subgroups of regular expressions either in an internal table result_tab or in a structure result_wa.

The internal table result_tab must have the table type MATCH_RESULT_TAB, and the structure result_wa must have the type MATCH_RESULT from ABAP Dictionary. The row type of the internal table is also MATCH_RESULT.

When an internal table is specified, this table is initialized before the search starts. When the search runs, a row is added to the internal table for each match found. If a structure is specified, it is assigned the values of the last occurrence. If FIRST OCCURRENCE is used, exactly one row is added to the table when the search is successful.

The row type or structure type MATCH_RESULT has the following components:

  • OFFSET of type INT4 for storing the offset of the substring
  • LENGTH of type INT4 for storing the length of the substring
  • SUBMATCHES from table type SUBMATCH_RESULT_TAB with the row type SUBMATCH_RESULT for storing the offset and length of the substring of the current occurrence, which are saved in the subgroup registers of a regular expression

The rows from result_tab are sorted according to the OFFSET and LENGTH columns. An additional component LINE is only relevant for the FIND IN TABLE variant.

If a search is not successful, the contents of the result_tab internal table are empty, whereas the result_wa structure retains its contents.


Note

The RESULTS addition is particularly useful when used in conjunction with the ALL OCCURRENCES addition when an internal table is used, and in conjunction with the FIRST OCCURRENCE addition when a structure is used.


Example

The following search for a regular expression finds the two substrings "ab" and "ba" at offset 0 and offset 2, and fills the internal table result_tab with two corresponding values. Since the regular expression contains three subgroups, the submatches component contains three lines. The first line of submatches relates to the outer parenthesis, the second line relates to the first inner parenthesis, and the third line relates to the second inner parenthesis. The first and second lines contain the offset and length of the first occurrence, and the third line remains undefined. The first and third lines contain the offset and length of the second occurrence, and the second line remains undefined.

DATA: result_tab TYPE match_result_tab. 

FIND ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX `((ab)|(ba))` 
     IN 'abba' 
     RESULTS result_tab. 

Addition 6

... SUBMATCHES s1 s2 ...

Effect

This addition can be used only when a regular expression is used in pattern. The current contents of the subgroup registers of the regular expression are written for the current found location to the s1, s2, ... variables, for which a character-like type is expected. When ALL OCCURRENCES is used, the last occurrence is evaluated. If there are more variables s1, s2, ... than subgroups, the surplus variables of fixed length are filled with blanks and strings are initialized. If there are fewer variables s1, s2, ... than subgroups, the surplus subgroups are ignored.


Example

The regular expression after REGEX has two subgroups. The search finds the substring at offset 0 with length 14. The contents of the registry for the subgroups are "Hey" and "my".

DATA: text TYPE string, 
      moff TYPE i, 
      mlen TYPE i, 
      s1   TYPE string, 
      s2   TYPE string. 

text = `Hey hey, my my, Rock and roll can never die`. 

FIND REGEX `(\w+)\W+\1\W+(\w+)\W+\2` 
     IN text 
     IGNORING CASE 
     MATCH OFFSET moff 
     MATCH LENGTH mlen 
     SUBMATCHES s1 s2.