ListToString
Synopsis
ListToString(list[,delimiter])
Parameters
| list | An expression that evaluates to a valid list. A Caché list must be created using ListBuild or ListFromString, or extracted from another list using List. The null string ("") is also treated as a valid list. |
| delimiter | Optional — A delimiter used to separate substrings. Specify delimiter as a quoted string. If no delimiter is specified, the default is the comma (,) character. |
Description
ListToString takes a Caché list and converts it to a string. In the resulting string, the elements of the list are separated by the delimiter.
A list represents data in an encoded format which does not use delimiter characters. Thus a list can contain all possible characters, and is ideally suited for bitstring data. ListToString converts this list to a string with delimited elements. It sets aside a specified character (or character string) to serve as a delimiter. These delimited elements can be handled using the Piece function.
The delimiter specified here must not occur in the source data. Caché makes no distinction between a character serving as a delimiter and the same character as a data character.
Parameters
list
A Caché list, which contains one or more elements. A list is created using ListBuild or ListFromString, or extracted from another list using List.
delimiter
A character (or string of characters) used to delimit substrings within the output string. It can be a numeric or string literal (enclosed in quotation marks), the name of a variable, or an expression that evaluates to a string.
Commonly, a delimiter is a designated character which is never used within string data, but is set aside solely for use as a delimiter separating substrings. A delimiter can also be a multi-character string, the individual characters of which can be used within string data.
If you specify no delimiter, the default delimiter is the comma (,) character. You can specify a null string ("") as a delimiter; in this case, substrings are concatenated with no delimiter. To specify a quote character as a delimiter, specify the quote character twice ("""") or use Char(34).
Examples
The following example creates a list of four elements, then converts it to a string with the elements delimited by the colon (:) character:
namelist=ListBuild("Deborah","Noah","Martha","Bowie")
PrintLn ListToString(namelist,":")returns "Deborah:Noah:Martha:Bowie"
The following example creates a list of four elements, then converts it to a string with the elements delimited by the *sp* string:
namelist=ListBuild("Deborah","Noah","Martha","Bowie")
PrintLn ListToString(namelist,"*sp*")returns "Deborah*sp*Noah*sp*Martha*sp*Bowie"
See Also
-
List function
-
ListBuild function
-
ListExists function
-
ListFind function
-
ListFromString function
-
ListGet function
-
ListLength function
-
ListNext function
-
ListSame function
-
ListValid function
-
Piece function
