Change text

There are two Change Text process statements:

NCHGT: Change new (or search) input text string
OCHGT: Change old input text string

These process statements change the input source image before performing the comparison.

The relative input file ("new" or "old") is scanned for text that matches a search_string. If matching text is found, it is replaced by a corresponding output_string before the comparison process is performed. Question marks ("?") may be used as "wildcard" characters in the search_string or output_string.

The search_string and output_string need not be the same length. The output_string may even be a null string.

Compare Types: LINE, WORD, and Search. OCHGT cannot be used for Search.


>>-+-NCHGT-+--'--search_string--'--,--'--output_string--'------->
   '-OCHGT-'                                                

>--+-------------------------------------------+---------------><
   '-,--start_column--+----------------------+-'   
                      '-:--last_start_column-'

search_string: A character or hexadecimal string to be replaced in the input file. For one embedded apostrophe, use two consecutive apostrophes ('').
output_string: The replacement string to be used in the comparison. For one embedded apostrophe, use two consecutive apostrophes ('').
start_column: The column in or after which the search_string must start. Must be greater than zero.
last_start_column: The last column in which the search_string may start. Must be separated from the start_column by a colon, and must be equal to or greater than the start_column value. If not supplied, is the equivalent of setting the value to start_column. To search from the start_column to the end of a variable length row, set the last_start_column to a value larger than the length of the longest row.

Example: Description
NCHGT 'ABCD','XXXX': Changes all strings "ABCD" in the new file to "XXXX" before performing the comparison.
OCHGT 'ABCD','XXXX',1:50: Changes all strings "ABCD" in the old file, that start within columns 1 to 50, to "XXXX" before performing the comparison.
OCHGT 'ABCD','',1:50: Changes all strings "ABCD" in the old file, that start within columns 1 to 50, to a null string before performing the comparison. (In the comparison process, this effectively ignores any "ABCD" strings found in those positions in the old file.)
NCHGT 'ABCD','AB': Changes all strings "ABCD" in the new file to "AB" before performing the comparison.
NCHGT X'7B01',':1',6: Changes all hexadecimal strings X'7B01' in the new file, that start in column 6, to the character string ":1" before performing the comparison.
NCHGT 'PREF???','NPREF': Changes all 7-character strings with the prefix "PREF" in the new file, to the 5-character string "NPREF" before performing the comparison.
NCHGT 'PREF???','NPREF??': Changes the first 5 characters of all 7-character strings with the prefix "PREF" in the new file, to "NPREF" before performing the comparison.