Splitting a Text String into Array Elements

PML Customisation User Guide

Arrays : Array Methods : Splitting a Text String into Array Elements

You can split a text string into its component fields and store each field in a separate array element using a text string’s Split() method. This can be useful after reading a record from a file into a variable. By default, the delimiter is any white-space character (tab, space or newline):

!Line = '123 456 789'

!ArrayOfFields = !Line.split()

The white-space is treated as a special case since consecutive white-spaces are treated as a single delimiter and white-spaces at the start or finish of the string are ignored.

The result is to create the array-variable !ArrayOfFields (if it does not already exist) with the element !FIELDS[1] set to '123', !FIELDS[2] set to '456', and !FIELDS[3] set to '789'.

To specify a different delimiter, specify the required (single) character as the argument to the Split() method:

!Line = '123 ,456 ,,789'

!ArrayOfFields = !Line.split(',')

In this example, comma is used as the delimiter. !ArrayOfFields is created if it does not already exist with the element !FIELDS[1] set to '123', !FIELDS[2] set to '456', !FIELDS[3] created but set to zero length, and !FIELDS[4] set to '789'.

Note:

In this case, unlike the white-space delimiter, consecutive occurrences of the comma define empty elements.

Note:

The only way to set the special white-space delimiter is by default; that is, by not specifying any delimiter as an argument to the Split() method. If a space is specified explicitly as the delimiter (as ' '), it will behave in the same way as comma in this example.

You can combine an array-append method with a text-string Split() method in a single command to append the fields of a text string to the end of an existing array variable, thus:

!ArrayOfFields.AppendArray(!Line.Split())