%TRIMZ

Return the length of a variable without trailing blanks

WSupported on Windows

USupported on Unix

VSupported on OpenVMS

NSupported in Synergy .NET

length = %TRIMZ(variable)

or

xcall TRIMZ(variable, length)

Return value

length

%TRIMZ returns the length of variable minus the number of trailing blanks. If the variable is blank, %TRIMZ return a value of 0. If the variable is null, %TRIMZ also returns a value of 0. In other words, both of the following statements return a value of 0. (i)

%trimz(" ")

and

%trimz("")

Arguments

variable

A variable whose length will be returned. (a)

Discussion

%TRIMZ returns the length of a variable minus the number of trailing blanks.

The difference between %TRIM and %TRIMZ is that with blank strings, %TRIM returns a value of one, and %TRIMZ returns a value of zero.

Examples

The following subroutine displays a prompt, gets the input, and returns the length of the actual data that was input. If no data is input, the return length is zero.

subroutine input 
    a_data      ,a 
    a_prompt    ,a 
    a_len       ,d 
proc 
    display(TTCHN, a_prompt, ": ") 
    reads(TTCHN, a_data, done) 
    a_len = %trim(a_data) 
done,
    xreturn 
endsubroutine

The example below checks for valid input.

subroutine chk_inp
    a_valid             ,a
    a_status            ,d
.define TTCHN           ,1 
record
    input               ,a60
    len                 ,d2
proc
    reads(TTCHN, input)
    xcall trimz(input, len)
    reads(TTCHN, input)
    xcall trimz(input, len)
    if (len) .and. (input(1:len) .eq. a_valid)) then
      a_status = %true
    else
      a_status = %false
    xreturn
endsubroutine