LOCATE

LOCATE statement finds the position of an element within a specified dimension of a dynamic array.

COMMAND SYNTAX

    LOCATE expression1 IN expression2{<expression3{,expression4}>},{, expression5} \
           { BY expression6 } SETTING Var THEN | ELSE statement(s)

SYNTAX ELEMENTS

expression1 evaluates to the string that will be searched in expression2.

expression2 evaluates to the dynamic array within which expression1 will search for the string.

expression3 and expression4 cause a value or subvalue search respectively, when specified.

expression5 indicates the field, value or subvalue from which the search will begin.

expression6 causes different searches to arrange the elements in different order, which can considerably improve the performance of some searches. The available string values for expression6 are:

StringDescription
ALValues are in ascending alphanumeric order
ARValues are in right justified, then ascending order
ANValues are in ascending numeric order
DLValues are in descending alphanumeric order
DRValues are in right justified, then descending order
DNValues are in descending numeric order

Var will be set to the position of the Field, Value or Sub-Value in which expression1 was found if indeed. If it was not found and expression6 was not specified then Var will be set to one position past the end of the searched dimension. If expression6 did specify the order of the elements then Var will be set to the position before which the element should be inserted to retain the specified order.

The statement must include one or both of the THEN and ELSE clauses. If expression1 is found in an element of the dynamic array, then it executes the statements defined by the THEN clause. If expression1 is not found in an element of the dynamic array, then it executes the statements defined by the ELSE clause.

INTERNATIONAL MODE

When the LOCATE statement is used in International Mode, the statement will use the currently configured locale to determine the rules by which each string is considered less than or greater than the other will.

NOTES

See also: FIND, FINDSTR

EXAMPLE

Using LOCATE to sort an array. 

       V.ARR = ''
       FOR V.I = 1 TO 1000
          V.ARR<V.I> = RND(1000)
       NEXT V.I
       V.SORTED = ''
        FOR V.I = 1 TO 1000
          V.IN = V.ARR<V.I>
          LOCATE V.IN IN V.SORTED<1> BY 'AN' SETTING V.INS.POSN ELSE NULL
          INS V.IN BEFORE V.SORTED<V.INS.POSN>
       NEXT V.I
       CRT MINIMUM(V.ARR), MAXIMUM(V.ARR)  ;* e.g. "0       998"
       CRT V.SORTED<1>, V.SORTED<1000>     ;* numbers should be the same as above
Last update: Sat, 16 Jul 2022 15:34