text.maskReplace.calc

// fnMaskReplace ( maskText; replacementText; wildcardCharacter )
// v1.1

// replaces wildcard characters within a text string with the characters in a replacement string
// input:
//	maskText = text string with some number of wildcard characters
//	replacementText = text string meant to replace wildcard characters one for one
//	wildcardCharacter = the specific char used as a wildcard	
// output:
//	text string
// note: if there are too many wildcard characters, they will be stripped out.
// note: if there are too many replacement characters, the excess will be ignored.
// note: recursive stack can manage up to 49,999 characters.

Let ([
	charReplaceCount = Length ( replacementText );
         charWildcardCount = PatternCount (maskText; wildcardCharacter) ;
	firstWildcardPosition = Position ( maskText; wildcardCharacter; 1; 1 );
	firstReplaceChar = Left ( replacementText; 1 );
	remainingReplaceChars = Right ( replacementText; charReplaceCount - 1 );
	oneCharReplaced = Replace ( maskText; firstWildcardPosition; 1; firstReplaceChar );
	returnText = 
               Case ( charWildcardCount = 0 ;
		             maskText;
                         charReplaceCount > 1 and charWildcardCount > 1 ;
                   	     fnMaskReplace ( oneCharReplaced; remainingReplaceChars;
      	                      wildcardCharacter );
                         oneCharReplaced
     		 ); 
	cleanText = Substitute ( returnText; wildcardCharacter; "" )
	]; 
	cleanText
)

/* Example:

fnMaskReplace ( "***hello***"; "123456"; "*")
returns: "123hello456"

fnMaskReplace ( "***hello********"; "123"; "*")
returns: "123hello"

fnMaskReplace ( "***hello*"; "1234567"; "*")
returns: "123hello4"

*/






/*
Function created by Soliant Consulting
www.soliantconsulting.com

Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
*/