ItemReplace

[JTaylor]

Perhaps this has come up before but thought I would mention it, as it seems to be inconsistent behavior compared to some other functions.  Given the following, searchinfo ends up being a blank string.  While I can see the argument for that being the case, it seems like the value should end up being "HELLO".   If you do a similar thing with ItemInsert, it has an ending value of "HELLO" rather than being a blank string.

Jim

Code Select Expand

cu = "HELLO"
searchinfo = ""
searchinfo = ItemReplace(cu, 1, searchinfo, "#")
Message("SI",searchinfo)

[kdmoyers]

I've stared at this for 5 minutes, and I think I agree with you.

Maybe there might be some code out there that depends on this behavior? Its an edge case, the empty list, so... tough call.

[bottomleypotts]

So:

count=ItemCount(searchinfo, "#")

should return 1 (a blank string) but instead returns 0 which is why it cannot replace.

Likewise:

extract1=ItemExtract(1, searchinfo, "#")

should create an error, rather than extract1 being blank ("").

[spl]

Perhaps documentation should address using "" as a delimiter, as some might think that flies in the face of a concept of a 'list'. This, however, does not remediate the previous posts which are valid.

[chrislegarth]

I think ItemReplace works as I would expect.  With ItemReplace you are specifying which item (index) to replace in the list.
An empty string list does not have an item 1 to replace so the empty string is maintained.  Changing List to equal "#" makes it have two empty strings to work with and a replacement occurs.

With the first code example, you would either do List = "HELLO" or List = Replacement

This code made more sense to me...

No replacement occurs

Code Select Expand

Replacement = "HELLO"
Index = 1
List = ""
List = ItemReplace(Replacement, Index, List, "#")
Message("Replacement",List)

Replacement occurs

Code Select Expand

Replacement = "HELLO"
Index = 1
List = "#"
List = ItemReplace(Replacement, Index, List, "#")
Message("Replacement",List)

[bottomleypotts]

If you can replace a blank item because there are many, then you should be replace a blank item because there is 1.