get first 3 characters of field

[hopkinsc]

Hi all,

i have a field that i am currently stripping all numbers from.

PurgeChar([Cell Name],'0123456789') as [BaseStation Name],

but i have found that for some particular values of this field i need to keep the first number.

here is an example of the values..

[Cell Name]

ADDAX1

ADDAX2

ADDAX3

PLU1

PLU2

PLU3

BO31

BO32

BO33

BO41

BO42

BO43

BO51

BO52

what i want is an if statement before my Purgechar statement to say that if the Cell name =BO* then take the first 3 characters (i.e. BO3, BO4 etc) otherwise do my purgechar statement.

I cant seem to get it to work, can anyone help?

[#2]

hi

left([Cell Name],3)

[stevedark · Accepted solution]

You will need this:

if(left([Cell Name], 2) = 'BO', left([Cell Name], 3), purgechar([Cell Name], '0123456789')) as [BaseStation Name],

Hope that helps,

Steve

[#4]

hi

if(wildmatch([Cell Name],'BO*'),left([Cell Name],3),[Cell Name]) as new_[Cell Name]

[MK_QSL]

IF(LEN(PurgeChar([Cell Name],'0123456789'))>3, 

     PurgeChar([Cell Name],'0123456789'),

     Left([Cell Name],3)) as [BaseStation Name],

[Colin-Albert]

if(left(YourField,2) = 'BO', left(YourField,3), YourPurgeCharExpression) as NewField