On 4/23/2015 8:53 AM, Gentry, Steve wrote: > I also discovered the following: > '| specs 1.8 1', > '| pad 8 .' > > Does not give the same results as: > '| specs w1 1' , > '| pad 8 .' ,
You can STRIP off the extraneous blanks: '| specs 1.8 1' , '| strip' , '| pad 8 .' , Now compare the results of all of these when the first word extends past column 8. Note that SPECS also has a STRIP conversion for data that may not be aligned in columns or fields: PIPE literal 1234 | specs pad . 1.8 strip 1.8 | cons 1234.... It has the limitation of stripping *only* blanks, though. To strip some other separator in SPECS, you can narrow the input range with SUBSTRING WORD 1-*, using WORDSEP to specify the separator: PIPE literal ,,x,y,z,,,| specs pad . ws , substr w1-* of 1.8 strip 1.8 | cons x,y,z... Either way, SPECS will always strip the separator on both sides. With the STRIP stage, you have the choice of whether to strip characters from the left or right. (You *can* choose which side to strip in SPECS, of course, but it takes a few more levels of its advanced syntax: naming input ranges, suppressing output, using functions, and printing expressions.) ¬R
