TITLE:Back-to-Basics: MC Conversion Codes
ISSUE:Multi-Value Solutions Nov'98
AUTHOR:Nathan Rector
COMPANY:Natec Systems
EMAIL:nater@northcoast.com
HTTP:www.northcoast.com/~nater/
There are many different conversion codes that make our work with MultiValue databases easy. These conversion codes allow data to be saved in one format, but displayed in many other different formats. There are simple conversion codes like Group (G) and Translate (T) to more complex conversion codes like F-correlatives and I-Types.
One set of conversion codes that are used a lot are the MC conversion codes. These codes do simple useful conversion of your data:
MCU
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MCU converts data of any type or case to all upper case. Since numbers do not have a "case" they are uneffected.
OCONV("uPPer1","MCU") = UPPER1
MCL
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MCL converts data of any type or case to all lower case. Since numbers do not have a "case" they are uneffected.
OCONV("LoWer1","MCL") = lower1
MCT
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MCT converts data to upper and lower by making all characters lower case except the first letter of each word.
OCONV("THE word","MCT") = The Word
MCS
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MCS converts data to allow case except the first letter in the string. This is commonly referred to as the sentence conversion.
OCONV("THE word","MCS") = The word
MCA
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MCA extracts all the alpha characters from a string. It discards anything that is not between A and Z. This includes wild card characters and numbers.
OCONV("1234 Wood","MCA") = Wood
MCN
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MCN extracts all the numbers from a string. It discards anything that is not between 0 and 9. This includes periods, dollar signs, and alpha characters.
OCONV("1234 Wood","MCN") = 1234
MCNA
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MCNA extracts all the number and alpha characters from a string. It discards any wild card characters like decimals and commas. This includes spaces.
OCONV("1234 Wood #1","MCNA") = 1234Wood1
MC/A
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MC/A works similar to the MCN, except it also includes wild card characters. With this conversion code, all the alpha characters are discarded.
OCONV("1234 Wood #1","MC/A") = 1234 #1
MC/N
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MC/N works similar to the MCA, except it also includes wild card characters. This conversion code discards all numbers.
OCONV("1234 Wood #1","MC/N") = Wood #
MC/AN
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MC/AN discards all alpha characters and all number from a string leaving only the wild card characters.
OCONV("$123,456.00","MC/AN") = $,.