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( ? ) = ?
INDEXOF
INDEXOF returns the index of the first occurrence of a specified substring in a string
Syntax
INDEXOF ( string , substring ) INDEXOF ( string , substring , startIndex )
- string - An attribute of base type string, an expression that results in a string or a constant string value.
- substring - 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 search for 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.
Return type
- integer - the index of the first occurrence of the specified substring or -1 if it is not found
Example
- INDEXOF( "Hello world" , "o" ) = 4
- INDEXOF( "Hello world" , "o" , 5 ) = 7
- INDEXOF( "Hello world" , "a" ) = -1
- INDEXOF( "Hello world" , "o" , 8 ) = -1
LASTINDEXOF
LASTINDEXOF returns the index of the last occurrence of a specified substring in a string
Syntax
LASTINDEXOF ( string , substring ) LASTINDEXOF ( string , substring , startIndex )
- string - An attribute of base type string, an expression that results in a string or a constant string value.
- substring - 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 search for the substring should start (inclusive), searching backwards. This can be either an attribute of base type integer, an expression that results in an integer or a constant integer value.
Return type
- integer - the index of the last occurrence of the specified substring or -1 if it is not found
Example
- LASTINDEXOF( "Hello world" , "o" ) = 7
- LASTINDEXOF( "Hello world" , "o" , 5 ) = 4
- LASTINDEXOF( "Hello world" , "a" ) = -1
- LASTINDEXOF( "Hello world" , "o" , 3 ) = -1
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"