Need to replace short dash between numbers without replacing the short dash between words

[former_member1110314]

Hi there

Here is an example of a line of text: Bio-synthetic valve, c. 1995-2001

In the above statement, I want to replace the short dash that appears between the years, but not the one that appears in the conjoined word. Is there a way I can search out 2 numeric characters followed by short dash followed by 2 numeric characters and replace the short dash with a longer em dash?

Desired end result: Bio-synthetic valve, c. 1995—2001

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

cheers

Karen

[Former Member]

Or you could just test for numbers

If isnumeric(replace(yourfield,"-", "") then replace(yourfield,"-", "chr(336)") else yourfield

Ian

[former_member1110314]

Hi there Ian

Thanks for your response!

It seems for your answer to work that the field needs to be entirely numeric? The field is a text field, with some numerical strings that we want separated with the em dash rather than a normal short dash, as per example above. When I use this formula, nothing happens, presumably because the whole field is not numeric?

cheers

KB

[Former Member]

Try adding trim to remove Trailing spaces or use replace to remove spaces

If isnumeric(replace(replace(yourfield, " ",""),"-", "") then replace(yourfield,"-", "chr(336)") else yourfield

Ian

[Former Member]

If that does not work can we see some real data, ie samples of contents of field.

you gave the example 1995-2001

If numbers only appear like that then formula should work, if format is different then you will need to modify formula accordingly

Ian

[former_member1110314]

Hi there Ian

An example of the entered field content is:

Bio-synthetic valve, c. 1995-2001

I need the dash between the numerical values (ie. between 1995 and 2001) to be an em dash, so I figured the simplest way to do that would be to ask Crystal to turn any dash that comes after two numerals and before 2 numerals (ie. is in between them), to turn that dash into an em dash. The reason why I nominate 2 digits is that there may be cases where the user enters only 2 digits in the date range, so all possibilities are covered if I just search on 2 rather than 4.

Hope that makes sense!

cheers

Karen