str_split

Splits a string into an array of strings given one or more delimiters.

Available in version 5.2.0 and later.

Prototype

	function str_split (
		string_val [1] : string,  
		delimiter  [1] : string   
	)

	return_val [*] :  string

Arguments

The input string to split.

A single string containing one or more delimiters to separate the string by.

Return value

An array of string(s).

Description

This function splits a single string based on a set of delimiters. If the string to be split contains consecutive delimiters, i.e. "1,2,3,,,4", then they will be treated as one delimiter. That is, you will get back the values 1, 2, and 4. If you want these values to be set to missing instead, for example (/1, 2, -999, -999, 4/), use str_split_csv.

See Also

str_split_csv, str_concat

Examples

Example 1a

Split a string according to a single space:

 str = "NCL has many features common to modern programming languages, including types, variables, and more."
 strs = str_split(str, " ")
 print("'" + strs + "'")

Output will be:

(0)     'NCL'
(1)     'has'
(2)     'many'
(3)     'features'
(4)     'common'
(5)     'to'
(6)     'modern'
(7)     'programming'
(8)     'languages,'
(9)     'including'
(10)    'types,'
(11)    'variables,'
(12)    'and'
(13)    'more.'

Example 1b

To additionally remove all the punctuation from the previous example, use the delimter string " ,."

 str = "NCL has many features common to modern programming languages, including types, variables, and more."
 strs = str_split(str, " ,.")
 print("'" + strs + "'")

Output will be:

(0)     'NCL'
(1)     'has'
(2)     'many'
(3)     'features'
(4)     'common'
(5)     'to'
(6)     'modern'
(7)     'programming'
(8)     'languages'
(9)     'including'
(10)    'types'
(11)    'variables'
(12)    'and'
(13)    'more'

Example 2

Note that consecutive delimiters (in this case, spaces) will be ignored:

 str = "NCL    has many features common to    modern programming languages."
 strs = str_split(str, " ")
 print("'" + strs + "'")

Output will be:

(0)     'NCL'
(1)     'has'
(2)     'many'
(3)     'features'
(4)     'common'
(5)     'to'
(6)     'modern'
(7)     'programming'
(8)     'languages.'

Example 3

Tabs and spaces are considered unique from each other. If you have a mix of tabs and spaces in your string, you can use a delimiter with a single tab and space to split your string.

  a = "This	is	   a string	with   tabs and spaces."
  space     = " "
  tab       = str_get_tab()
  delimiter = space + tab

  print("str_split with space delimiter")
  print("'" + str_split(a,space) + "'")
  print("")

  print("str_split with tab delimiter")
  print("'" + str_split(a,tab) + "'")
  print("")

  print("str_split with space and tab delimiter")
  print("'" + str_split(a,tab_space) + "'")
  print("")

Output will be:

(0)     str_split with space delimiter
(0)     'This   is      '
(1)     'a'
(2)     'string with'
(3)     'tabs'
(4)     'and'
(5)     'spaces.'
(0)
(0)     str_split with tab delimiter
(0)     'This'
(1)     'is'
(2)     '   a string'
(3)     'with   tabs and spaces.'
(0)
(0)     str_split with space and tab delimiter
(0)     'This'
(1)     'is'
(2)     'a'
(3)     'string'
(4)     'with'
(5)     'tabs'
(6)     'and'
(7)     'spaces.'