MATCHES operator

Compares a character expression to a pattern and evaluates to a TRUE value if the expression satisfies the pattern criteria.

Syntax

expression MATCHES pattern
expression
A CHARACTER or LONGCHAR expression that you want to check to see if it conforms with the pattern.
pattern

A character expression that you want to match with the string. This can include a constant, field name, variable name, or expression whose value is a character.

The pattern can contain wildcard characters: a period (.) in a particular position indicates that any single character is acceptable in that position; an asterisk (*) indicates that any group of characters is acceptable, including a null group of characters.

Example

This procedure displays customer information for all Customers whose Address ends in St. The procedure does not use an index for the Customer search in r-match.p.

r-match.p

FOR EACH Customer NO-LOCK WHERE Customer.Address MATCHES("*St"):
  DISPLAY Customer.Name Customer.Address Customer.City Customer.State
    Customer.Country.
END.

Notes

See also

BEGINS operator