Re: Word Count in XYWdos4.017

[Carl Distefano CLDistefano@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to note from Harry Binswanger  Fri, 18 Oct 96 22:07:53 +0000

Harry:

-> -> Not only wildcards on either side of the change, but a much
-> -> wider repertoire of wildcards, e.g., the ability, via
-> -> numerical wildcards, to control the length of strings subject
-> -> to the change.
->
-> Sounds interesting--what would be an example?
->

What I had i mind was something like this:

  CV /top[w2][w5][wX]bottom/top to toe/

which would change/verify every phrase consisting of "top" + 25 _or
fewer_ characters + "bottom". Note that the entire phrase is changed
to "top to toe". Unfortunately, they didn't go the whole 9 yards and
permit ...

  CV /top[w2][w5][wX]bottom/top[w2][w5][wX]toe/

.. which would change only the last word of each phrase and leave the
rest intact. You get a spurious Error 567 ("Wildcards must be in the
same order on both sides of a change"). Still, it's a nice capability,
particularly in SEarch commands. For example, when I look up "John
Smith" in my address file, I use XPL to substitute "[w2][w5][wX]" for
the space, so that I'll find the listing even if it appears as "John B.
Smith" or "John Bartholomew Smith". Useful.

Lest there be any confusion, "[w2]" represents the wildcard character
that is produced by issuing the command "func NN" and then typing "2".
A SmartSet routine called WILDCARD automates this process.


--------------
Carl Distefano * * *  CLDistefano@xxxxxxxx
--------------