SAP SEARCH FUNCTIONS documentation, setup help and usage info

ARTICLE

find , find_... - Search Functions

Syntax Forms
1. ... find( val = text {
sub = substring }|{
regex = regex } [
case = case ]
[ off = off ] [
len = len ] [
occ = occ ] ) ...
2. ... find_end( val = text regex = regex [
case = case ]
[ off = off ] [
len = len ] [
occ = occ ] ) ...
3. ... find_any_of( val = text sub = substring
[ off = off ] [
len = len ] [
occ = occ ] ) ...
4. ... find_any_not_of( val = text sub = substring
[ off = off ] [ len = len ] [
occ = occ ] ) ...

Effect
The search functions find and find_... scan text for the characters specified in substring or for a match with a regular expression specified in regex , with the scanned subarea specified in the optional parameters off and len and the occurrence of the match specified in the optional parameter occ .
The return code has the type i and is filled as follows:

The function find searches for the exact substring specified in substring or for a match with the regular expression regex and returns the offset of the occurrence with respect to the full length of text . The search is case-sensitive by default, but you can override this with the parameter case

. If substring is empty, an exception from the class
CX_SY_STRG_PAR_VAL is raised.

The function find_end searches like find , however it returns the sum of the offset of the occurrence and the length of the match with the regular expression.

The function find_any_of returns the offset of the occurrence of any character in substring , and is always case-sensitive. If substring is empty, the value -1 is returned.

The function find_any_not_of returns the offset of the found occurrence of any character not in

substring , and is always case-sensitive. If substring is empty, the value -1 is returned.
If a search is not successful, all functions return the value -1.
The optional parameters off ,
len , and occ have the following meaning when combined:

If occ is positive, the subarea defined by off and len

is searched from left to right.

If occ is negative, the subarea defined by off and len

is searched from right to left.
The occurrence of the match specified by occ refers to the search area defined by off and len .

Notes

Using the related search functions count

and count_... , you can determine the total number of occurrences instead of an offset.

Like the statement FIND , the search functions can be faster than the comparison operator

CS cy some magnitude.

Example
See String Functions, find and substring

Runtime Exceptions

Catchable Exceptions
CX_SY_RANGE_OUT_OF_BOUNDS

Reason for error: Illegal offset or length specification in the off

and len .

Runtime error: STRING_OFFSET_TOO_LARGE

CX_SY_REGEX_TOO_COMPLEX

Reason for error: More information: Exceptions in Regular Expressions .

Runtime error: REGEX_TOO_COMPLEX

CX_SY_STRG_PAR_VAL

Reason for error: Substring in sub or regular expression in

regex is empty or occurrence in occ is 0.

Runtime error: STRG_ILLEGAL_PAR