$Piece()
Chapter 7. Functions

The first expression specifies the string from which $PIECE() computes its result.

The second expression specifies the delimiting string that determines the piece "boundaries"; if this argument is an empty string, $PIECE() returns an empty string.

If the second expression does not appear anywhere in the first expression, $PIECE() returns the entire first expression (unless forced to return an empty string by the second integer expression).

The optional first integer expression (third argument) specifies the beginning piece to return; if this argument is missing, $PIECE() returns the first piece.

The optional second integer expression (fourth argument) specifies the last piece to return. If this argument is missing, $PIECE() returns only one piece unless the first integer expression is zero (0) or negative, in which case it returns a null string. If this argument is less than the first integer expression, $PIECE() returns an empty string.

If the second integer expression exceeds the actual number of pieces in the first expression, $PIECE() returns all of the expression after the delimiter selected by the first integer expression.

The $PIECE() result never includes the "outside" delimiters; however, when the second integer argument specifies multiple pieces, the result contains the "inside" occurrences of the delimiter.

$PIECE() can also be used as tool for efficiently using values that contain multiple elements or fields, each of which may be variable in length.

Applications typically use a single character for a $PIECE() delimiter (second argument) to minimize storage overhead, and increase efficiency at run-time. The delimiter must be chosen so the data values never contain the delimiter. Failure to enforce this convention with edit checks may result in unanticipated changes in the position of pieces within the data value. The caret symbol (^), backward slash (\), and asterisk (*) characters are examples of popular visible delimiters. Multiple character delimiters may reduce the likelihood of conflict with field contents. However, they decrease storage efficiency, and are processed with less efficiency than single character delimiters. Some applications use control characters, which reduce the chances of the delimiter appearing in the data but sacrifice the readability provided by visible delimiters.

A SET command argument can have something that has the format of a $PIECE() on the left-hand side of its equal sign (=). This construct permits easy maintenance of individual pieces within a string. It also can be used to generate a string of delimiters. For more information on SET $PIECE(), refer to “Set”.

$PIECE() can also be used as target in a SET command to change part of the value of a node. Also, when SET arguments have multiple parenthesized (set-left) targets and a target is used as a subscript in more than one item in the list of targets that follow, all the targets use the before-SET value (not the after-SET value) in conformance to the M-standard. For more information on SET $PIECE(), refer to “Set”.

For a proces started in UTF-8 mode, $PIECE() interprets the string arguments as UTF-8 encoded. With VIEW "BADCHAR" enabled, $PIECE() produces a run-time error when it encounters a malformed character, but it does not process the characters that fall after the span specified by the arguments.

$ZPIECE() is the parallel function of $PIECE(). Irrespective of the settings of VIEW "BADCHAR" and $ZCHSET, $ZPIECE() interprets string arguments as a sequence of bytes (rather than a sequence of characters) and can perform all byte-oriented $PIECE() operations. For more information, refer to “$ZPIece()”.