Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Progress 4GL Reference

SUBSTITUTE function

This function returns a character string that is made up of a base string plus the substitution of arguments in the string. It allows you to use a single string in place of concatenated strings. It is designed to simplify the task of translating an application from one language to another. This function is similar to the sprintf function of the C programming language.

Syntax

SUBSTITUTE ( base-string [ , arg ] ... )

base-string

A character string optionally containing substitution parameters of the form &n, where n is an integer between 1 and 9, inclusive.

arg

A constant, field name, variable, or expression that results in a character string value. These argument values replace substitution parameters in base-string.

Examples

These statements display the same message:

MESSAGE SUBSTITUTE("There were &1 records in &2 tables", rec-count, table-count).

MESSAGE "There were" rec-count "records in" table-count "tables".

You can alter the position of the substitution parameters, as in this statement.

SUBSTITUTE("&2 comes before &1", "Friday", "Monday").

Notes

The SUBSTITUTE function is double-byte enabled. The specified base-string and arg values can contain double-byte characters.
To include an ampersand character in base-string, enter two ampersands (&&).
The character following the ampersand character must be a digit, or Progress returns a run-time error.
To display the result of the SUBSTITUTE function in a frame, you must specify FORMAT or accept the default format of X(8).
If you use a substitution parameter in base string but do not specify a corresponding argument, Progress replaces the substitution parameter with an empty string.
Any substitution parameter can appear multiple times in base string. For example:

phrase = "finish on time". DISPLAY SUBSTITUTE("When I say &1, I mean &1!", phrase) FORMAT "X(70)".

The code above displays the following line:

When I say finish on time, I mean finish on time!

See also

REPLACE function