Split function in SCL

VBA has a function called Split that is handy for parsing strings to an array based on some delimiter.  All you have to do is dim out an array variable and say:

ArrayVar = Split( "the,split,string" , "," ) and your ArrayVar will contain three strings, "the" , "split", and "string".

There is no in-built function in SCL to do this, so I have put together something that should work in a similar fashion.  I have named the function the same, though the difference here is because SCL's arrays are fixed in size, where with VBA you can dynamically size arrays.

To get around this, you must first declare a String array in the Var section of your calling procedure (or globally), and pass that into the Split function as the last argument.  You must also provide the upper bound of the array to the function.  This upper bound is not the highest index of the array (which is one minus the size of the array), but just the size of the array.  One easy way to use this information is to declare your arrays using Const's denoting the size of the array.  For example:

procedure some_proc()
Const
arr_size 10
Var
my_array : Array[ arr_size ] of String

........

So, in this case, if you wanted to split a string into my_array, you would do this:

num_elems = split( 'some delimited line' , ' ' , arr_size , my_array )

where num_elems is the number of chunks of text split into the array.  If there are more chunks than there are bins in your array, any trailing chunks will be ignored, and no error will be raised.

I have tested this routine a bit, so it should work fairly well, even with multi-character delimiters.  On a side note, you should put this routine into your always available routines in QUEST.

routine split( the_line : String ; the_delim : String ; max_elements : Integer ; Var the_array : Array[] of String ) : Integer
Var
   write_idx , delim_idx : Integer
   check_char : String
Begin
   while( len( the_line ) > 0 ) do
      if( write_idx < max_elements ) then
         delim_idx = index( the_line , the_delim , 1 )
         --write( 'delim_idx=' , delim_idx , cr )
         if( delim_idx > 0 ) then
            the_array[ write_idx ] = leftstr( the_line , delim_idx - 1 )
            the_line = rightstr( the_line , len( the_line ) - delim_idx - len( the_delim ) + 1 )
         else
            -- no more delimeters left - write the last of the_line to the array
            the_array[ write_idx ] = the_line
     the_line = '' -- empty the_line so we break from the while loop
         endif
         write_idx = write_idx + 1
      else
         the_line = '' -- empty the_line so we break from the while loop
      endif
   endwhile
   return write_idx -- return number of pieces written to array
End