InfoPath Dev

I know that I can set substring in the rule and apply the rule in the InfoPath. But substring can only get the character out and not the whole word. Is it possible to substring the whole word instead of getting characters.

For example, I have this string name input: "Represents text that should be kept confidential." If I use the substring(input, 0, 6) it will give me "Repres". But I'm not too sure if I can get the first 6 word using the rule in InfoPath.

Thank you very much.

 Sorry, I guess I'm not understanding. If your input phrase is "Represents text that should be kept confidential", what should be the end result?

No, I don't think there's anything as simple as what you're asking about, but this should work for getting the first 6 words of a string:

substring(field, 1, string-length(field) - string-length(substring-after(substring-after(substring-after(substring-after(substring-after(substring-after(field, " "), " "), " "), " "), " "), " ")))

The end result should be "Represents text that should be kept". So it should print 6 words instead of 6 characters.

Jimmy:

No, I don't think there's anything as simple as what you're asking about, but this should work for getting the first 6 words of a string:

substring(field, 1, string-length(field) - string-length(substring-after(substring-after(substring-after(substring-after(substring-after(substring-after(field, " "), " "), " "), " "), " "), " ")))

Will this code work if I have for example more than 300 words and I just want to get the first 200??

I tried it but it only give me the first 6 words only. How do I code it so that it will be dynamic.

What I mean is that if the length of the field is less than 200 I will get all the string in this field If the length of the field is greater than 200 then I will just get the first 200.

I don't think there is a simple way to make it dynamic.  You could modify it to nest more substring-after(..., " ")s in there until you have 200.  Why do you want to to get the first 200 words of a string anyway?  Wouldn't the number of characters be a more valid measurement in most cases?

Jimmy:

I don't think there is a simple way to make it dynamic.  You could modify it to nest more substring-after(..., " ")s in there until you have 200.  Why do you want to to get the first 200 words of a string anyway?  Wouldn't the number of characters be a more valid measurement in most cases?

Yes I agree with you. I still need to double check it whether I need to get the first 200 words or just first 200 characters.

I can do this, using rules and no code.

Can you please confirm for me if the following is correct.
"User types in words, when they move to next field, any words past the #th word are deleted." where # is a number decided by you.

Then, if you cross my palm with gol...hehe kidding. Then I'll post an example template.

Part of the solution involves reversing the characters in a field, which I've done, but never had a use for until now. :-P

Skarn:

I can do this, using rules and no code.

Can you please confirm for me if the following is correct.
"User types in words, when they move to next field, any words past the #th word are deleted." where # is a number decided by you.

Then, if you cross my palm with gol...hehe kidding. Then I'll post an example template.

Part of the solution involves reversing the characters in a field, which I've done, but never had a use for until now. :-P

Skarn, Yes it is correct. But I do not delete those words I just read it.

What I'm trying to do is to read from one of the field say "Description" that contains any # of words. The rule should take the first 200 words from "Description" and put it into another field "summary".

I would appreciate it very much if you could post an example on how you approach this problem. Thank you again for your help!!!

 hi yyc, my reverse text doesn't work as well as I thought - it suffers from an issue (which isn't really a bad thing) where Infopath won't let rules change a field continuously in case it gets stuck in a loop. I hadn't tested my reverse method with enough characters *blush*. So at this stage I suggest you decide on a number of characters instead and use substring.

I could adjust it to do a split based on 'sentences' (ie. look for fullstops, but even that may not be sufficient. Sorry for getting your hopes up, I'm disappointed too, thought I was on to a good solution.

Skarn:

 hi yyc, my reverse text doesn't work as well as I thought - it suffers from an issue (which isn't really a bad thing) where Infopath won't let rules change a field continuously in case it gets stuck in a loop. I hadn't tested my reverse method with enough characters *blush*. So at this stage I suggest you decide on a number of characters instead and use substring.

I could adjust it to do a split based on 'sentences' (ie. look for fullstops, but even that may not be sufficient. Sorry for getting your hopes up, I'm disappointed too, thought I was on to a good solution.

Hi Skarn, Thank you for the reply. It's okay. I will definitely think about using the character instead of substring. Thank you again for your help. :)