Sample Statements Using PARSE - mfx - 3.1

A file with comma-delimited records for a stock portfolio contains fields for stock symbol, current price, and today’s change amount:

DIS,34.56,+1.09
T,37.05,-.42
GOOG,449.12,-11.62

To format this information into fixed-length columns so that the data can be properly sorted and displayed, the following INREC and SORT statements may be used:

The ENDBEFR subparameters for the %1 and %2 parsed fields capture the data in the first two fields in the input records up until the comma delimiters and reposition the cursor after the commas, while ENDBEFR for %4 works similarly for the last field in each record. FIXLEN sets the maximum output length for each field. %3 is used to strip the sign off the change amount, so that the numeric part of the amount can be right-justified. The BUILD parameter is used to right-justify the numeric data into columns and to add spacing between the numbers. Using INREC allows the data to be sorted by stock symbol, producing the following output:

DIS    34.56 + 1.09
GOOG  449.12 -11.62
T      37.05 - .42

A file has records with name and address information in a keyword format

NAME1=GEORGE;NAME2=BUSH;ADDR1=OVAL OFFICE;ADDR2=1600 PENNSYLVANIA
AVE;CITY=WASH
NAME1=WILLIAM;MI=J;NAME2=CLINTON;ADDR1=15 OLD HOUSE LN;CITY=CHAPPAQUA;STATE=NY
NAME1=GEORGE;MI=H;NAME2=BUSH;CITY=HOUSTON;STATE=TX

PARSE may be used to search for each keyword and extract the data into fixed-length fields in a reconstructed record. In this example, some of the keywords in certain records may be missing. This normally would cause the cursor to be moved to the end of the record, so that the search for the next keyword fails. But, by using PARSE with an IFTHEN WHEN=INIT separately for each field, this problem can be avoided because the cursor is reset to the beginning of the record for each new PARSE.

This produces the following output, where blanks are used for each missing field:

GEORGE        BUSH   OVAL OFFICE    1600 PENNSYLVANIA  AVE WASH
WILLIAM   J CLINTON  15 OLD HOUSE LN                       CHAPPAQUA NY
GEORGE    H BUSH                                           HOUSTON   TX