PRACTICAL GUIDEUnder review

String manipulation

Len(cText); LTrim(cText); Left(cText,nCount); Lower(cText)

Combines text operations with explicit bounds.

String manipulationAdvPL

01 · OVERVIEW

Overview

Len measures length, LTrim removes leading spaces, Left extracts a prefix and Lower converts to lowercase. These operations differ: removing leading spaces preserves trailing ones; case conversion neither validates identifiers nor normalizes Unicode. This example uses ASCII and keeps the original input for comparison. (Sources: refs. 1–4.)

02 · SYNTAX

Syntax

Len(cText); LTrim(cText); Left(cText,nCount); Lower(cText)

03 · PRACTICAL EXAMPLE

Commented example

#Include "Protheus.ch"

User Function Ed518()
    Local cRaw := "  ITEM01 "
    Local cWork := LTrim(cRaw)
    // Preserve input; transform a copy.
    ConOut("["+cRaw+"]")
    ConOut(Lower(Left(cWork,4)))
Return Nil

Expected result

Prints the bracketed input, then item. Under review: editorial example neither compiled nor run in Protheus. Check includes, release, RDD and context before testing.

BEST PRACTICES

Define encoding and policies for spaces, accents and empty fields. Avoid changing keys or legal content through generic cleanup rules.
Under review: editorial example neither compiled nor run in Protheus. Check includes, release, RDD and context before testing.

String manipulation

Overview

Syntax

Commented example

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