$LISTFROMSTRING ($LFS) - Caché MultiValue Basic Reference

$LISTFROMSTRING(string,delimiter)
$LFS(string,delimiter)

string	An expression that resolves to a string to be converted into a Caché list. This string contains one or more elements, separated by a delimiter. The delimiter does not become part of the resulting Caché list. The string cannot contain the quoted string delimiter.
delimiter	Optional — The delimiter used to separate substrings (elements) in string. An expression that resolves to a string containing one or more characters. If no delimiter is specified, the default is the comma (,) character. The delimiter cannot contain the character used to delimit the quoted string.

$LISTFROMSTRING takes a quoted string containing delimited elements and returns a Caché list. 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. Lists are handled using the various $LIST functions.

A string literal (enclosed in quotation marks), a numeric, or a variable or expression that evaluates to a string. This string can contain one or more substrings (elements), separated by a delimiter. The string data elements must not contain the delimiter character (or string), because the delimiter character is not included in the output list.

A character (or string of characters) used to delimit substrings within the input 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 cannot specify a null string ("") as a delimiter; attempting to do so results in a <STRINGSTACK> error.

namestring="Deborah Noah Martha Bowie"
namelist=$LISTFROMSTRING(namestring," ")
PRINT "1st element: ",$LIST(namelist,1)
PRINT "2nd element: ",$LIST(namelist,2)
PRINT "3rd element: ",$LIST(namelist,3)