Replace Non-Numeric Characters with a Numeric Character in a String

[Former Member]

Hi Guys,

I need to replace all the non-numeric characters (including embedded blanks & hyphen) in a string to a numeric character '1'.

The trailing blanks should not be replaced.

e.g. "P22233344455566" should be changed to "122233344455566"

& "49-1234567 " should be changed to "4911234567 "

Please help.

[Former Member]

Use [replace|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPREPLACE_IN_PATTERN.htm] with a regular expression to translate any non-numeric character (i.e. any character not between 0 and 9) to 1:

  REPLACE ALL OCCURENCES OF REGEX '[^0-9]' IN value WITH '1'.

Cheers, harald

p.s.: In older releases [translate|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPTRANSLATE.htm] would also do the trick, but is more lengthy, because one would need to specify each individual character that should be replaced, e.g.:

  TRANSLATE value TO UPPER CASE.
  TRANSLATE value USING
      ' 1_1-1a1b1c1d1e1f1g1h1i1j1k1l1m1n1o1p1q1r1s1t1u1v1w1x1y1z1'.

[Former Member]

If I use the code suggested by you the trailing blanks are also getting replaced by '1'.

e.g. if the string is of 15 characters and the value is "a13-4 567g23 ", it is getting changed as "113141567123111".

but it should be changed as "113141567123".

The trailing blanks should be left as it is and should not be replaced by '1'.

Please help.

[kesavadas_thekkillath]

Do a condense before replacing.

[Former Member]

For keeping trailing blanks use this [replace|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPREPLACE_IN_PATTERN.htm] statement instead:

REPLACE ALL OCCURENCES OF REGEX '[^0-9](?! *$)' IN value WITH '1'.

You cannot use [condense|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPCONDENSE.htm], because it processes all blanks in a string, not just the trailing blanks (and per your statement it sounds like you want to keep them, which is accomplished via the statement I've given above).

Cheers, harald