12.12.2 String manipulation functions

concatenate(string1,string2, ..., stringn)

Parameters

A sequence of character strings separated by commas.

Returns the sequence of strings as one concatenated string.

For example:

concatenate("a","b","c") --> "abc"

date()

Returns a character string containing the current date.

For example:

date() --> "3 May 1994"

lowercase(string)

Parameters

string is a character string.

Returns string in all lowercase.

For example:

lowercase("AbCdEf 567") --> "abcdef 567"

number(currprev)

Parameters

currprev is current or previous, indicating the current or previous paragraph.

Returns a character string with the FrameMaker autonumber of the current or previous paragraph. number() defaults to the current paragraph.

For example:

number(current) --> "6.7.2"

The returned value of 6.7.2 means that the paragraph currently being translated by WebMaker has autonumber evaluating to 6.7.2.

text(currprev, index1, index2)

Parameters

currprev

current or previous, indicating the current or previous paragraph.

index1

the ith piece of tab-delineated text

index2

the jth piece of tab-delineated text

Returns a character string that is the concatenation of the ith to the jth piece of tab-delineated text in the current or previous paragraph.

Note: Paragraphs with tab-delineated text may be considered as an array of text pieces. This function allows for the extraction of any sequence or all of these pieces.

This function has useful defaults for the two index parameters, which are demonstrated in the following examples:

text()--> all text of current paragraph

text(previous)--> all text of previous paragraph

text(current,1)--> first piece of current paragraph

text(previous,2,4)--> second to fourth pieces of previous paragraph

text(current,3,*)--> from the third piece to the end of current paragraph

time()

Returns a string containing the current time.

For example:

time() --> "17:37:23"

uppercase(string)

Parameters

string is a character string.

Returns string in all uppercase.

For example:

uppercase("AbCdEf 567") --> "ABCDEF 567" 

butlast(string)

Parameters

string is a character string.

Returns a string that is like the argument string with the last word removed, where a word is any sequence of characters separated by whitespace.

For example:

butlast("vanilla ice cream") --> "vanilla ice"
butlast("page 7") --> "page"
butlast("See page 3-2") --> "See page"

butlast strips the last word without disrupting any HTML markup in the string argument. For example:

butlast("<B>twin cities</B>) --> "<B>twin</B>"

This function is intended for use in a table of contents where a space, rather than a tab, was used to separate the page number from the text at the beginning of the line. In that context, butlast strips the page number out of the table of contents.

For example, a typical use of butlast in context is:

PARAGRAPH "1TitleTOC" TYPE List 
{
  LEVEL 1
  KIND Glossary
  ACTIONS
  {
     write(*,glossterm(bold(butlast(text()))));
  }
}

If you knew that the format of the table of contents included words such as "page 3" at the end of the line, you could use butlast nested twice to remove both "page" and "3" from the end of the line.

butlast(butlast("Introduction page 7")) --> "Introduction"