FindAndReplace What is the returned value

[Rupert Hewitt]

I have found a function used in some NI sample code FindAndReplace() and it doesnt show as a teststand function. Anybody used it or know what the return values are and any optional parameters ?

[James_Grey]

FindAndReplace was obsoleted (ie. no longer documented) in favor of the nearly identical SearchAndReplace function. SearchAndReplace returns the modified string, which is more generally useful in expressions than the number-of-replacements, which is what FindAndReplace returns.

[Scott_Richardson]

Rupert -
In the TestStand expression language there is a SearchAndReplace function which returns the modified string. What is the code snippet, is it C, C++, expression?

Scott Richardson (NI)

SearchAndReplace(string, searchString, replacementString, , , , , )
This function searches for and replaces one or more substrings with the replacementString.
Parameter 1: A string in which to perform substring replacements.
Parameter 2: The substring to find and then replace with the replacement string.
Parameter 3: The replacement string.
Parameter 4: An optional number that specifies the zero-based character index at which to begin searching. The default is 0.
Parameter 5: An op
tional Boolean that specifies whether to ignore character case when searching. The default is False.
Parameter 6: An optional number that specifies the maximum number of occurrences of substring to replace. A value of -1 signals the function to replace all occurrences of the substring. The default is -1.
Parameter 7: An optional Boolean that specifies whether to search the string in reverse. The default is False. If you pass True, the start index passed to parameter 3 specifies the zero-based index from the end of the string of the character at which to begin searching in reverse.
Parameter 8: An optional number in which the function stores the number of substrings that it replaced.
Returns: The modified string.

[McGregorMortis]

Just thought I would add one comment here. The SearchAndReplace() function has one undocumented feature that caused me some chagrin a few weeks ago.

If a simple variable is passed as the "string" parameter, then SearchAndReplace() will actually modify the string, and return a copy of it.

This seems to happen if the passed value is what in "C" would be called an "l-value". To prevent the original variable being modified, you can instead pass an expression that evaluates to an identical value. The result of an expression is not an l-value.

In my case, instead of passing Locals.ConnectionString, I passed Locals.ConnectionString+""

- Ron