7.4.1. ABBREV (Abbreviation)

Returns 1 if info is equal to the leading characters of information and the length of info is not less than length. It returns 0 if either of these conditions is not met.

If you specify length, it must be a positive whole number or zero. The default for length is the number of characters in info.

Here are some examples:

Example 7.4. Builtin function ABBREV examples

ABBREV("Print","Pri")      -->    1
ABBREV("PRINT","Pri")      -->    0
ABBREV("PRINT","PRI",4)    -->    0
ABBREV("PRINT","PRY")      -->    0
ABBREV("PRINT","")         -->    1
ABBREV("PRINT","",1)       -->    0

Note

A null string always matches if a length of 0, or the default, is used. This allows a default keyword to be selected automatically if desired; for example:

Example 7.5. Builtin function ABBREV example

say "Enter option:";   pull option .
select  /* keyword1 is to be the default */
  when abbrev("keyword1",option) then ...
  when abbrev("keyword2",option) then ...
  /* ... */
  otherwise nop;
end;