Padding a text string

Classic Servoy
1

Is there a function I could use to pad a text string with spaces?

I need to take input of a numeric value, which could be anything from 3 to 6 digits but then I need to right justify that value in a text field, i.e. turning 1001 into ’ 1001’
I’ve taken a look through the available string functions and nothing jumps out at me. I could write a loop but that seems excessive if i’m overlooking a simpler option.

Kind regards,

Tony

2

Hi Tony,

You could do it this way:

var spaces = '          ', // 10 spaces, add more if you need more
    maxLength = 10;        // lets say the max string length is 10

// Now add padding spaces to the left of the value.
myStringColumn = utils.stringLeft(spaces, maxLength - String(myNumberColumn).length) + String(myNumberColumn);

Hope this helps.

3

Thanks, that looks a lot neater than what I had in mind. Just got to work out why the subsequent find isn’t working now! :?

4

you probably execute an ‘exact’ find, where you should have a ‘like’ find.

5

It’s an exact find I’m trying to do, to validate that my form holds a unique value before creating a record. I’ve got there but I don’t really understand the difference!

I had this, which didn’t work;

var spaces = '          ', maxLength = 7;
var lvExtn = utils.stringLeft(spaces, maxLength - String(pExtn).length) + String(pExtn);
controller.find();
extn=lvExtn;
var nResults = controller.search();

So, I studied the find() help and I’ve changed extn=lvExtn; to extn=‘=’+lvExtn; as per one of the examples and now it works but I have other non-exact match finds where I’ve not specified the = in the search string. It’s this type of stuff I’m really struggling to get my head around, very subtle changes can make a big difference.

var spaces = '          ', maxLength = 7;
var lvExtn = utils.stringLeft(spaces, maxLength - String(pExtn).length) + String(pExtn);
controller.find();
extn='='+lvExtn;
var nResults = controller.search();
6

Tony,

The reason that you have to use the ‘=’ here is that you are searching for a value that starts with whitespace.
We remove leading/trailing whitespaces because the find can also be used like this from a form by the user (find mode).
If the user accidentally added a space at the front or end a search fail would be unexpected by the user.

The ‘=’ enforces the string to be interpreted as a whole.

Btw, when using find(),always check the boolean result, the UI may be in a state that the find is not possible.

Rob