You are viewing the documentation for Blueriq 17. Documentation for other versions is available in our documentation directory.
CONCATENATE
Use the '+' (plus) operator to concatenate strings or a combination of strings and other type values to produce a single string value.
Syntax
string1 + string2 + ... + value1 + ...
- string1 - The first string that you want to concatenate.
- string2 - The second string that you want to concatenate.
- value1 - A value of some type of number, date or boolean that you want to add to the new string value.
Return type
- string
Examples
Expression | Result |
---|---|
12 + ” kilometers” | “12 kilometers” |
“This statement is ” + TRUE + ”.” | “This statement is true.” |
“I was born on ” + Me.birthDateAndTime + ”.” (Me.birthDateAndTime = 01-12-1970 23:00:45) | “I was born on Tue Dec 01 23:00:45 CET 1970.” |
There exists a STR_CONCAT (string, string) function in the expression language. As it can only concatenate 2 strings, and is much longer in typing, we advise to use above way for concatenating strings.
JOIN
This function joins a series of values into one string, separated with a character of your choice.
Syntax
JOIN(argument1, argument2, ..., separator)
- argument1, argument2 - Attributes or expressions that contain the values that will be joint to a single string. JOIN works for all base types, even multivalued.
- separator - A string value that will be used as separator symbol.
Return type
- string
The CONCAT function is identical to the JOIN function.
Examples
Suppose a model containing the following 4 attributes.
Attribute | Basetype | Value |
---|---|---|
Person.name | string | “John” |
Person.date_of_birth | date | 01-01-1995 |
Person.family_name | string |
Expression | Result |
---|---|
JOIN(Person.name,Person.date_of_birth,”;”) | “John;Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 CET 1995” |
JOIN(Person.name,Person.name,”@”) | “John@John” |
JOIN(Person.name,Person.family_name, YEARS BETWEEN Person.date_of_birth AND DATE(2015,01,01),”;”) | “John;;20” |
MATCH
The MATCH function compares a string pattern to another string and returns TRUE if the string exactly matches the pattern, and otherwise FALSE. The MATCH function is case-sensitive.
Syntax
MATCH(pattern, string)
- pattern - An attribute of base type string or a string value. String must be a valid regular expression. The regular expressions used in several Blueriq Studio functions are common Java 1.4 expressions. For a complete documentation we refer to the online java documentation.
- string - String value, attribute of base type string or an expression that results in a string value.
Return type
- boolean
Examples
If the attribute File.name is of base type string and its value is “Thisfile_1.doc” then
- MATCH(“Thisfile_1.doc”, File.name) results in TRUE
- MATCH(File.name, ”Thisfile_1.doc”) results in TRUE
- MATCH(” Thisfile_1.doc”, File.name) results in FALSE
- MATCH(“thisfile_1.doc”, File.name) results in FALSE
- MATCH(“[A-Z]hisfile_1.doc”, File.name) results in TRUE
- MATCH(“[a-z]hisfile_1.doc”, File.name) results in FALSE
- MATCH(“Thisfile_[0-9].doc”, File.name) results in TRUE
- MATCH("..............", File.name) results in TRUE
- MATCH(".*", File.name) results in TRUE
- MATCH("**", "**") results in an error message, because "**" is not a valid regular expression
FIND
The FIND function looks for one string pattern within another string and returns the first matching characters. The function is case-sensitive.
Syntax
FIND(pattern, attribute)
- pattern - An attribute of base type string or a string value. String must be a valid regular expression. The regular expressions used in several Blueriq Studio functions are common Java 1.4 expressions. For a complete documentation we refer to the online java documentation.
- attribute - An attribute of base type string or an expression that results in a string.
Return type
- string
Examples
If File.name is an attribute of base type string with value “Thisfile_1.doc”, then:
- FIND(“_[1-5]”, File.name) results in “_1”
- FIND(“File”, File.name) results in UNKNOWN
- FIND(“el”, “Hello”) results in “el”
- FIND(“eo”, “Hello”) results in UNKNOWN
FIRST
FIRST returns the first character(s) of a string, based on the number of characters you specify.
Syntax
FIRST integer CHARACTERS OF string FIRST CHARACTER OF string
- integer - A positive integer value. This can be either an attribute of base type integer, an expression that results in an integer or a constant integer value. FIRST CHARACTER OF can be used to retrieve only the first character of the string.
- string - An attribute of base type string, an expression that results in a string or a constant string value.
Return type
- string
If you prefer a functional syntax, you can use the STR_FRONT( string, integer ) function. Example: STR_FRONT("Blueriq", 3) = "Blu"
Examples
If File.name is an attribute of base type string with value “Thisfile_1.doc” and the integer attribute File.prefix has value 8 then:
- FIRST File.prefix CHARACTERS OF File.name results in “Thisfile”
- FIRST CHARACTER OF File.name results in “T”
Example
- FIRST 2 CHARACTERS OF (LAST 6 CHARACTERS OF “pieceofcake”) results in “of”
- LAST 3 CHARACTERS OF (FIRST 4 CHARACTERS OF “what's in a name”) results in “hat”
LAST
LAST returns the last character(s) of a string, based on the number of characters you specify.
Syntax
LAST integer CHARACTERS OF string LAST CHARACTER OF string
- integer - A positive integer value. This can be either an attribute of base type integer, an expression that results in an integer or a constant integer value. LAST CHARACTER OF can be used to retrieve only the last character of the string.
- string - An attribute of base type string, an expression that results in a string or a constant string value.
Return type
- string
If you prefer a functional syntax, you can use the STR_BACK ( string, integer ) function. Example: STR_BACK("Blueriq", 3) = "riq"
Examples
If File.name is an attribute of base type string with value “Thisfile_1.doc” and the integer attribute File.extension has value 3 then:
- LAST File.extension CHARACTERS OF File.name results in “doc”
- LAST CHARACTER OF File.name results in “c”
Example
- FIRST 2 CHARACTERS OF (LAST 6 CHARACTERS OF “pieceofcake”) results in “of”
- LAST 3 CHARACTERS OF (FIRST 4 CHARACTERS OF “what's in a name”) results in “hat”
LENGTH
LENGTH returns the length of a string
Syntax
LENGTH ( string )
- string - An attribute of base type string, an expression that results in a string or a constant string value.
Return type
- integer
Spaces at the start of the end of the string are counted as well, the string is not trimmed.
Example
- LENGTH( "Blueriq" ) = 7
- LENGTH( " Blueriq " ) = 9
- LENGTH( ? ) = ?
UPPER
UPPER returns a string with all characters in uppercase
Syntax
UPPER ( string )
- string - An attribute of base type string, an expression that results in a string or a constant string value.
Return type
- string
Example
UPPER( "hello" ) = "HELLO"
UPPER( "WORLD" ) = "WORLD"
UPPER( "hello world " ) = "HELLO WORLD "
UPPER( " hELLo " ) = " HELLO "
- UPPER( ? ) = ?
LOWER
LOWER returns a string with all characters in lowercase
Syntax
LOWER ( string )
- string - An attribute of base type string, an expression that results in a string or a constant string value.
Return type
- string
Example
- LOWER( "hello" ) = "hello"
- LOWER( "WORLD" ) = "world"
- LOWER( "Hello World " ) = "hello world "
- LOWER( " hELLo " ) = " hello "
- LOWER( ? ) = ?
CAPITALIZE
CAPITALIZE returns a string with the first character uppercased
Syntax
CAPITALIZE ( string ) CAPITALIZE ( string, lowerTheRest )
- string - An attribute of base type string, an expression that results in a string or a constant string value.
- lowerTheRest - An attribute of base type boolean, an expression that results in a boolean or a constant boolean value, indicating that the other characters need to be lowercased. This parameter is optional and if it is not supplied, the other characters are left untouched.
Return type
- string
Example
- CAPITALIZE( "hello" ) = "Hello"
CAPITALIZE( "WORLD" ) = "WORLD"
CAPITALIZE( "hello world " ) = "Hello world "
CAPITALIZE( " hELLo " ) = " hELLo "
The input string is not trimmed, so in this case the first character is a space.
- CAPITALIZE( "hello" , TRUE ) = "Hello"
CAPITALIZE( "WORLD" , TRUE ) = "World"
CAPITALIZE( "hello world " , TRUE ) = "Hello world "
CAPITALIZE( " hello " , TRUE ) = " hELLo "
The input string is not trimmed, so in this case the first character is a space.
- CAPITALIZE( ? ) = ?
TRIM
TRIM strips the leading and trailing spaces from a string
Syntax
TRIM ( string )
- string - An attribute of base type string, an expression that results in a string or a constant string value.
Return type
- string
Example
- TRIM( "Hello" ) = "Hello"
- TRIM( "Hello World" ) = "Hello World"
- TRIM( " Hello World " ) = "Hello World"
- TRIM( ? ) = ?
SUBSTRING
SUBSTRING returns the substring of a given string starting from the index provided and ending at the end index if provided, or the end of the string
Syntax
SUBSTRING ( string , startIndex ) SUBSTRING ( string, startIndex, endIndex )
- string - An attribute of base type string, an expression that results in a string or a constant string value.
- startIndex - A positive integer value indicating at which character the substring should start (inclusive). This can be either an attribute of base type integer, an expression that results in an integer or a constant integer value. The first character starts at index 0.
- endIndex - A positive integer value indicating at which character the substring should end (exclusive). This can be either an attribute of base type integer, an expression that results in an integer or a constant integer value. The
endIndex
cannot exceed the length of the string.
Return type
- string
Example
- SUBSTRING( "Hello world" , 1 ) = "ello world"
- SUBSTRING( "Hello world" , 1 , 5 ) = "ello"
- SUBSTRING( "Hello world" , 0 ) = "Hello world"
- SUBSTRING( "Hello world" , 0 , LENGTH( "Hello world" ) ) = "Hello world"
- SUBSTRING( ? , 1 ) = ?