$ZWIDTH (ObjectScript)

Returns the total width of the characters in an expression.

Synopsis

$ZWIDTH(expression,pitch)

Arguments

Argument	Description
expression	A string expression
pitch	Optional — The numeric pitch value to use for full-width characters. The default is 2. Other permissible values are 1, 1.25, and 1.5. (These values with any number of trailing zeros are permissible.) All other pitch values result in a <FUNCTION> error.

Description

$ZWIDTH returns the total width of the characters in expression. The pitch value determines the width to use for full-width characters. All other characters are assigned a width of 1 and are considered to be half-width.

Example

Assume that the variable STR contains two half-width characters followed by a full-width character:

   WRITE $ZWIDTH(STR,1.5)

returns 3.5.

In this example, the two half-width characters total 2. Adding 1.5 (the specified pitch value) for the full-width characters produces a total of 3.5.

Full-width Characters

Full-width characters are determined by examining the pattern-match table loaded for your InterSystems IRIS process. Any character with the full-width attribute is considered to be a full-width character. You can use the special ZFWCHARZ patcode to check for this attribute (char?1ZFWCHARZ). For more information about the full-width attribute, see the description of the $X/$Y Tab in System Classes for National Language Support.