Description: This function performs a search and replace operation on a buffer and returns the resulting buffer.
Returns: Buffer
Usage: Script or Steady State
Format: Replace(Buffer, Offset, N, Search, Replace)
Parameters: Buffer { text } { required } { no default: }
Any text expression giving the buffer to search. The size of the buffer is limited to 65 500 bytes.
Offset { numeric } { required } { no default: }
Any numeric expression giving the buffer offset from 0 to start the search.
N { numeric } { required } { no default: }
Any numeric expression giving the number of buffer characters (bytes) to search.
Search { text } { required } { no default: }
Any text expression giving the search string. Search must be at least 1 byte long.
Replace { text } { required } { no default: }
Any text expression giving the replace string.
Comments: This function returns a buffer that is the same as Buffer, except that within the first N bytes following Offset, all occurrences of Search are replaced with Replace.
Since the search and replace strings are delimited by quotation marks, to include a set of quotation marks as part of either, you must use two sets of quotation marks inside of the quotation marks that delimit the string (see the example below).
Example:
If a variable exists such that:
txt = "abcdefABCDEF";
And the following statement is executed:
txt = Replace(txt { Buffer },
0 { Start at beginning of buffer },
12 { Search through 12 characters },
"fA" { Search for this string },
"-wow-" { Replace string with this });
The result will be that txt will contain the string "abcde-wow-BCDEF".
As a further example of how this function is used, if quotation marks were considered illegal characters in a certain context and therefore needed to removed from a string, the following statement could be used to achieve this:
txt = Replace(stringWithQuotes { Search buffer },
0 { Start at beginning },
StrLen(stringWithQuotes) { Search entire string },
"""" { Find all quotes },
"" { Replace with nothing });
See Also: