change() function

The change() function searches a string expression for the search string and then, if at the start occurrence, replaces search.str with replacement.str for the amount of occurrences specified in occurrences.

Syntax

change(str.exp, search.str, replacement.str{,occurrences{,start}})

Synonym(s)

ereplace()
swap()

Parameter(s)

`str.exp`	String in which the specified `search.str` is searched for.
`search.str`	String to search for in `str.exp`.
`replacement.str`	String to replace the specified `search.str`.
`occurrences`	Specifies the number of occurrences of `search.str` to be replaced by `replacement.str`. If not specified, defaults to 0, which replaces all found occurrences.
`start`	Specifies which occurrence of search string the replacement begins. If not specified, defaults to 1.

Description

Note: To use change(), it is necessary to use a nondefault compiler compatibility option. Inserting the $options ext statement at the beginning of the program accomplishes this.

Example(s)

Assigns the value "The old time" to nstring.

$options ext
nstring = change("The new time","new","old")

This outputs "++-". The change() function replaces one occurrence of "-" starting at the second occurrence.

print change("---","-","+",2,1)