Overview
 
For a broader overview of comparisons in scripting,consult one of the following sections of this user manual:
• Comparators
• Flow Control Commands
The commands described below deal with special cases involving comparison.
 
AlphaNumPatt
 
Parse-O-Matic Scripting supports several types of comparators:
 
Format v1 =AlphaNumPatt v2 [v3 ]
Example X =AlphaNumPatt '416-287-8892';Set X to 'NNN-NNN-NNNN'
Purpose Creates a pattern of characters representing the format
of variable v2 in terms of alphabetic,numeric and special
characters
Parameters v1 -Variable being set
v2 -Value being analyzed
v3 -Control setting
Controls v3 is a TrimChar specification
Defaults v3 =''(no trimming)
Similar Cmds Numeric
See also the Matches or Comprises comparators
 
AlphaNumPatt returns an 'A'for every letter (uppercase or lowercase)in v2,and an 'N'for every digit.All other characters (spaces,dashes etc.)are left as-is.Here are some sample results:
 
——————————— ——————————— ——————————— ——————————— ——————————— ———————————
Value of v2 Value of v3 Result (v1) Value of v2 Value of v3 Result (v1)
——————————— ——————————— ——————————— ——————————— ——————————— ———————————
'12-34-56' (Not set) 'NN-NN-NN' '$12.34 ' (Not set) '$NN.NN '
'AB 1234' (Not set) 'AA NNNN' 'XY 999 ' 'B ' 'AA NNN'
———————————— ——————————— ———————————— ——————————— ——————————— ———————————
 
AlphaNumPatt is handy for detecting the presence or conformity of a phone number,serial number,part number etc.,and is sometimes more convenient than the Matches and Comprises comparators.
 
CompareCtrl
 
Here is a list of the literal comparators:
 
Format CompareCtrl v1
Example CompareCtrl 'MatchCase'
Purpose Changes the default case sensitivity of comparisons
Parameters v1 =Control setting
Controls IgnoreCase/MatchCase
Similar Cmds Que
Unless otherwise instructed by CompareCtrl,comparisons ignore text case,so that (for example)'Cat'is considered the same as 'CAT'or 'cat'.You can use CompareCtrl to change this behaviour.

CompareCtrl affects comparisons only ;it does not affect commands that search for text,such as Change, FindPosn, Lookup, Parse, Insert and so on.
 
Numeric
 
With some restrictions (discussed later),literal comparators work on both numeric and alphabetic data.Here are some examples of literal comparisons that are true:
Format v1 =Numeric v2 [v3 ]
Example X =Numeric '3.14159''Yes';Set X to 'Y'
Purpose Evaluates whether or not a value is numeric
Parameters v1 -Variable being set to 'Y'or 'N'(for Yes and No)
v2 -Value being assessed
v3 -Control setting:allow decimal point?
Controls No/Yes
Defaults v3 ='No'(do not allow a decimal point —accept only integers)
Similar Cmds The Matches and Comprises comparators
 
This function returns 'Y'if v2 is numeric (i.e.a number).Otherwise,it returns 'N'.

A leading -or +character is considered an acceptable part of a numeric value.Multiple decimal points (e.g. '12.34.56')are not accepted as numeric.Scientific notation (e.g.'1E32')is not accepted as numeric.
 
Que
 
Format v1 =Que v2 k3 v4 [v5 ]
Example MyVar =Que 'Cat'='Dog';Compare two strings
Purpose Saves the result of a comparison
Parameters v1 -Variable being set to 'Y'or 'N'(for True or False)
v2 -Value to be compared
k3 -Comparator
v4 -Value to compare to v2
v5 -Control setting
Controls IgnoreCase/MatchCase
Defaults v5 ='IgnoreCase'(unless overridden by CompareCtrl)
Similar Cmds If,Begin
Que (short for “Question")is useful when you need to save the result of a comparison,or if you need a single instance of case sensitivity.For most comparisons,however,you will use If or Begin.

(This page is part of the online user manual for Parse-O-Matic.  Parse-O-Matic is a programmable parsing tool that can extract, manipulate, convert or mine existing data sources and turn them into importable data.  For more information on Parse-O-Matic products and conversion services, please visit www.ParseOMatic.com)