Hello,

I have what should be an easy one. I have tried to use the locate to do this. I have a string 82.00-. I need to determine if the string contains a post negative sign and move it to the front before I convert the string to a decimal. I have not found a utility to locate the presence of a negative. I can do it with a for loop.

Any Ideas. It would appear the Locate is capable of this.

Thanks Bruce.

String=82.00-'

If String-1, 1=-' Then

String-1,1='

String=-' : String

End

The Sprezzatura Group

World Leaders in all things RevSoft

If Value -1, 1 =-" Then

   Value-1,1="

   Value = "-" : Value

End

The Sprezzatura Group

World Leaders in all things RevSoft

LOCATE . . . seeks a value in an array, setting a variable to indiciate position within the array

INDEX() is a function which looks for a character or character sequence in a string, returning the offset within the string

Same concept, but one's for arrays, one's for strings.

Steve

Steve… if my assumptions are correct, you can use a very simple routine.

If you are always going to have a number to convert, then you can do this…

Given that the variable STRING=82.00-'

STRING=ICONV(STRING,'MD2')

STRING=OCONV(STRING,'MD2')

The final result in STRING will be "-82.00". The ICONV and OCONV conversion routines will handle moving the negative sign for you.

Yes, Richard, you're absolutely correct.

I guess Bruce now has some alternatives.

The string options are the most efficient,

followed by the INDEX() then the ICONV/OCONVs.

We know little of the data consistency

and what to expect in this context.

Steve

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