The field() function returns a substring from a string expression, by specifying a delimiter and the desired occurrence.
field(str.exp, search.delimiter, num.delimiters, num.substr)
| str.exp | String from which the substring will be returned. |
| search.delimiter | Delimiter to search for. The delimiter is limited to a single character. Any additional characters are ignored. |
| num.delimiters | Number of delimiters to skip, plus one, prior to substring extraction. |
| num.substr | Number of substrings separated by the specified delimiter to be returned. |
After executing the field() function, the col1() and col2() functions return the beginning and ending positions within the string at which the delimiters were found.
This causes all characters up to the first asterisk in gl.account to be assigned to the variable company.code. As a result, afterward, company.code contains the value, 02. col1() has a value of 0, and col2() has a value of 3.
gl.account = "02*4000*11" company.code = field(gl.account,"*",1)
This causes all characters from the first to the second asterisk to be stored in the variable, acct.number, which contains the value, 4000.
acct.number = field(gl.account,"*",2)