wildcard expressions in DCL script

[Tim Nelson]

Having trouble finding this easy one.
if var .eqs. "bob*" then goto A

Looking to use wildcard in an if statement.

Thanks in advance.

[Antoniov.]

Hi Tim,
wildcard works only with files (command DIR or lex F$SEARCH).
I wrote a C routine to manage LIKE operator; if you have a C compiler I can send you source code.

Bye
Antoniov

[labadie_1]

if you want to do that, I think you have better options than the Dcl
- Perl for Vms
http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/
- awk (in Tcpip examples, snmp subdirectory, you have gawk)
- Python for Vms
vmspython.dyndns.org

all have regular expression matching, in python
import re
re.compile...

[Tim Nelson]

Thanks for the tips.. I was hoping I would not have to install / use another application.
I did the following to get what I wanted.

if f$extract(0,3,VAR) .eqs. "BOB" then goto

better than nothing and works..

Much appreciative.

[Antoniov.]

Tim,
load this simple like routine written in DCL. It's very simple but can help you.

Bye
Antoniov

[Hein van den Heuvel · Accepted solution]

Your extract and compare is the classic solution, but the most rigid as the string must be in an exact location.

Most folks will use F$LOCATE comparing the result with F$LENGTH to get at the "*string" leading wildcard effect.

There are also creative usages of F$ELEMENT for stirng locating.

And there is yet an other, not too well known, method to check for string matches in DCL through string subtraction (reduction)!

$ test = "xxxxABCyyyy"
$ if test .eqs. (test - "ABC") then write sys$output "Not found"
$ if test .eqs. (test - "ABCD") then write sys$output "Not found"
Not found
$ x = test - "ABC"
$ show symb x
X = "xxxxyyyy"
$

Here is an other (a bit more widespread used)string subtract example:

$ write sys$output f$cvt() -
-" "-"-"-"-"-":"-":"-":"-"."
2004012911245313

Enjoy!
Hein.

[Antoniov.]

...and if you need somthing better I can compile the prior example for you.

Bye
Antoniov

[Tim Nelson]

All excellent options !!!

Thanks to everyone.

[John Eerenberg]

fwiw
a variation on
$ if f$extract(0,3,VAR) .eqs. "BOB" then goto A
would be
$ var=f$edit(var,"trim,compress,upcase")
$ if f$extract(0,3,VAR) .eqs. "BOB" then goto A
this gives me a level of predictability when it comes to leading spaces, multiple space/tabs, and upper/lower case.
hope it helps.
john

[Jan van den Ende]

And if you favour to compact it into "one" function, use:

$ if f$extract(0,3,f$edit(var,"trim,compress,upcase") .eqs. "BOB" then goto A

[Simon French]

Hi,

Another thought. How about using f$locate..

$ aa = "****BOB###"
$ bb = f$locate("BOB",aa)
$ sh symb bb
BB = 4 Hex = 00000004 Octal = 00000000004
$ bb = f$locate("BILL",aa)
$ sh symb bb
BB = 10 Hex = 0000000A Octal = 00000000012
$

The result being the string location if found, else its length if not found.

Regards
Simon

[Ian Miller.]

See also
http://www.openvms.org/stories.php?story=03/03/31/6547431