Parse-O-Matic: Decapsulator Power Commands for Parsing Data Files

Overview

This section documents the specific decapsulator commands.For a broader overview of decapsulators, please see the Decapsulators section of this user manual.

Insert

Parse-O-Matic Scripting supports several types of comparators:

Format	Insert v1 d2 v3 [v4 ]
Examples	Insert Var '10''Cat' Insert Var '-1''X' Insert Var '>*A''Y' Insert Var 'B''Z''Exclude'	;Insert 'Cat'at column 10 ;Insert 'X'before last char ;Insert 'Y'before last 'A' ;Insert 'Z'after first 'B'
Purpose	.Inserts v3 into v1 at the position determined by d2
Parameters	v1 -Variable being modified d2 -Decapsulator v3 -Value to insert at the position found by v2 v4 -Decapsulator control settings
Controls	Exclude/Include;IgnoreCase/MatchCase
Defaults	v4 ='Include MatchCase'("Include ” means “insert before ”)
Similar Cmds	Change,Overlay
Notes	If decapsulator d2 is not found,nothing is done. Sets $Success ('Y'=decapsulator value was found).

Overlay

Here is a list of the literal comparators:

Format	Overlay v1 d2 v3 [v4 ]
Examples	Overlay MyVar '10''Cat' Overlay MyVar '<A''X' Overlay MyVar '3B''Y' Overlay MyVar '>*C''Z'	;Overlay 'Cat'at column 10 ;Overlay first 'A'with 'X' ;Overlay third 'B'with 'Y' ;Overlay last 'C'with 'Z'
Purpose	Overwrites v1 with v3 at the position determined by d2
Parameters	v1 -Variable being modified d2 -Decapsulator v3 -Value to overwrite at the position found by v2 v4 -Decapsulator control settings
Controls	Exclude/Include;IgnoreCase/MatchCase
Defaults	v4 ='Include MatchCase'
Similar Cmds	Change,Insert
Notes	If decapsulator d2 is not found,nothing is done. If necessary,v1 will be lengthened to make room for v3. Sets $Success ('Y'=decapsulator was found).

Parse

With some restrictions (discussed later),literal comparators work on both numeric and alphabetic data.Here are some examples of literal comparisons that are true:

Format	v1 =Parse v2 d3 [d4 [v5 ]]
Examples	See below
Purpose	Parses free-form data
Parameters	v1 -Variable being set v2 -Value being searched d3 -“From ” decapsulator d4 -“To ” decapsulator v5 -Decapsulator control settings
Controls	Exclude/Include;IgnoreCase/MatchCase;Cut;Relaxed
Defaults	d4 =''(Null decapsulator,meaning “to the end of the line") v5 ='Exclude MatchCase'
Similar Cmds	FindPosn,ScanPosn

Parse is one of the most powerful commands in the Parse-O-Matic Scripting repertoire.For an introduction to working with decapsulators (along with many examples of the Parse command),please see the Decapsulators section of this user manual.

The “Cut ”Control Setting

The Cut control setting removes the text that is found in the variable being examined,along with the encapsulating text. This technique is particularly useful when using a technique called “Left-Peeling ”. Consider the following script:

MyVar      =  'John,Aloysius,Smith'
FirstName =  Parse MyVar ''',''Cut'  ;Cut out first name
MidName    =  Parse MyVar ''',''Cut'  ;Cut out middle name
LastName   =  MyVar ;Save what's left

This “peels ” off fields from the left side of the variable MyVar..It will set the variable FirstName to 'John',
the MidName variable to 'Aloysius',and LastName to 'Smith'.

The “Relaxed ”Control Setting

The “Relaxed ” control setting lets the “To ” decapsulator look for text that may not be there..If it is not there, the “To ” decapsulator is treated like a null (('')decapsulator.

Let us say you are extracting information from the $OutData special variable and some of the lines you have to parse look like this:

Bob
Fred Smith
Mary Anastasia Jones
John Quincy Publique Sr.

This data is inconsistent,so you cannot predict how many parsing cuts to make.With the “Relaxed ” control
setting,this is not a problem.
Consider the following example.

Name1 = Parse $OutData '''''Cut Relaxed'
Name2 = Parse $OutData '''''Cut Relaxed'
Name = Parse $OutData '''''Cut Relaxed'
Name4 = Parse $OutData '''''Cut Relaxed'
Name = Name1 '/'Name2 '/'Name '/'Name4 '/'

This would set the Name variable to the following values:

Bob
Fred/Smith
Mary/Anastasia/Jones
John/Quincy/Publique/Sr.

The preceding example could,of course,have been accomplished more easily with the Change command, but it is included here as a demonstration,not a real-world application.

(This page is part of the online user manual for Parse-O-Matic. Parse-O-Matic is a programmable parsing tool that can extract, manipulate, convert or mine existing data sources and turn them into importable data. For more information on Parse-O-Matic products and conversion services, please visit www.ParseOMatic.com)