filePro quiz -- edits "@"

[Kenneth Brody]

On 8/22/2011 10:53 AM, Kenneth Brody wrote:
> Here's a quickie.  No fair looking at the list's archives for examples from me.
>
> What does the "@" edits syntax do?
>
> Bonus points: write an edit that needs it.

No takers?

The "@" edits syntax matches end-of-field (including trailing spaces).  It's 
very useful for edits which use "{}" and "*" to match multiple "any" 
characters, especially when the edit might make the text longer.

For example, to convert an apostrophe to "&39;", a less-than sign to "<", 
and a greater-than sign to ">":

foo   { @ | (!"'"!<&39;>) | (!"<"!<&lt;>) | (!">"!<&gt;>) | * }

Without the "@" syntax, the "*" within the edit will accept all trailing 
spaces, making the resulting value too long to fit in the field, causing the 
edit to fail.  But, by putting "@" at the start of the edit, all of those 
trailing spaces will be "eaten", hopefully making enough room to expand 
those characters.

-- 
Kenneth Brody