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Status Future consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories Languages - RPG
Created by Guest
Created on Jun 7, 2024

RELATED IDEAS

Add an argument to %Scan to calculate and return occurrences of the search-arg

Objective: To have an argument in %Scan that returns the total number of occurrences of the search argument in the search string.


for example...

string = 'hello world'
count of 'o' = 2

Below is a suggestive implementation using a hypothetical reserved word for indicating that only occurrences need to be counted (and not the position)

n = %SCAN(search argument : source string {: *OCCUR})
n = %SCAN('o': 'hello world' : *OCCUR) // and the output in n is stored as 2
n = %SCAN(*BLANK: 'hello world' : *OCCUR) // and the output in n is stored as 1

Idea priority Medium
  • Admin
    Carmelita Ruvalcaba
    Aug 12, 2025

    The CAAC has reviewed this IBM Idea and recommends that IBM not implement this request.

    The REGEXP_COUNT is a function that already does this.

    Background: The COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CAAC has a key role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual IBM Ideas on the broader IBM i community and has therefore reviewed your Idea.

    For more information about CAAC, see www.common.org/caac

    Carmelita Ruvalcaba - CAAC Program Manager

    Reply
  • Guest
    Aug 23, 2024
    IBM will use this Idea as input to planning, but no commitment is made or implied. This Idea will be updated in the future if IBM implements it. IBM will use votes and comments from others in the community to help prioritize this Idea.

    However, note that it is not possible for %SCAN to sometimes return the position and sometimes return the number of hits.

    But it is possible to add a special value *ALL for %SCAN so it would return an array of positions. If a *AUTO array was used as the target of the assignment for %SCAN(*ALL), the number of elements in the array would give the number of hits.

    Another possibility would be to add a new built-in function such as %SCANCOUNT().

    -IBM Power Systems Development
    Reply
  • Guest
    Jun 19, 2024

    I could use that as well (currently using a procedure I wrote myself).

    No idea about the implementation but a separate %ScanCnt procedure would be fine as well.

    Reply

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