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segment - Segment Function

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54

Syntax


 ... segment( val = text index = idx [sep|space = sep] ) ...

Effect

This function returns the occurrence of a segment of the argument text specified by index. A segment is defined by limiters. The beginning and ending of the string in text are the outer limiters. Inner limiters can be passed to sep or space as follows:

  • If the argument sep is provided, then the substring specified in sep is searched for (case-sensitive as in text) and used as a limiter. If a substring specified in sep occurs directly one after another in text, an empty segment is created and an empty string is returned for this segment.
  • If the argument space is provided, each individual character is searched for in sep (case-sensitive) and this is used as a limiter. If the individual characters specified in sep occur directly one after another in text, no empty segment is created and no result is returned.

The limiters are not part of the segments. If sep or space are not specified, the argument sep is implicitly filled with individual empty spaces. In both cases, specifying an empty string raises an exception of the class CX_SY_STRG_PAR_VAL.

If index is positive, the occurrences are counted from the left; if index is negative, the instance are counted from the right. The values 1, 2, .... indicate the first, second, ... occurrences. The values -1, -2, .... indicate the last, last but one, ... occurrences. If the value of index is 0, or the specified segment does not exist, an exception of the class CX_SY_STRG_PAR_VAL is raised.

sep is a character-like expression position and index is a numerical expression position with type i. If sep has a fixed length, trailing blanks are ignored.

The return code has the type string.


Note

If the substring specified in sep is not found, the entire character string forms a single segment. This segment can only be addressed by using the values 1 or -1 for index.


Example

The following function calls produce "AB", "CD", "EF", "GH", respectively, and raise an exception at the end.

DATA  result TYPE string. 

DO. 
  TRY. 
      result = segment( val   = 'AB\brCD\brEF\brGH' 
                        index = sy-index 
                        sep = `\br` ). 
      ... 
    CATCH cx_sy_strg_par_val. 
      EXIT. 
  ENDTRY. 
ENDDO. 

DO. 
  TRY. 
      result = segment( val   = 'AB  CD - EF_GH' 
                        index = sy-index 
                        space = ` -_` ). 
      ... 
    CATCH cx_sy_strg_par_val. 
      EXIT. 
  ENDTRY. 
ENDDO.

Example

Also refer to the example String Functions, cmax, cmin and segment.

Exceptions


Catchable Exceptions

CX_SY_STRG_PAR_VAL

  • Cause: Limiter in sep is empty or the occurrence in index is 0 or was not found.
    Runtime Error: STRG_ILLEGAL_PAR