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How get 4 characters from a string of characters

If I have this string of characters in a text field on a form... "80522526J142-101" How can I "pull" the "J142" portion of it out for use in another text field on a form? It will always be the 4 characters prior to the hyphen.

Rgonzo1971

Hi,

pls try

res: Mid("yourString",Instr(1,"yourString", "-")-5,Instr(1,"yourString", "-")-1)

Regards

Russ Suter

You could do this with a simple Regex. The following will match the 4 characters immediately preceeding a '-' character.

var testString = '80522526J142-101';

alert(testString.match(/(.{4})(?=-)/));

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Rgonzo1971

Corrected Code

res: Mid("yourString",Instr(1,"yourString", "-")-5,4)

SteveL13

ASKER

This didn't work: Mid("yourString",Instr(1,"yourString", "-")-5,Instr(1,"yourString", "-")-1)

and

what is Regex?

Russ Suter

Sorry, slight edit to above...

var testString = '80522526J142-101';

alert(testString.match(/(.{4})(?=-)/)[0]);

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This is just in case your string contains more than 1 '-' character. If you need to respond to multiple matches then the logic gets a little more complex.

SteveL13

ASKER

Actually I'm trying to do it in a query. Like:

But when I try to run the query I get "Invalid procedure call".

???

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Rgonzo1971

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SteveL13

ASKER

Had to modify slightly:

Code: Mid([PartN],InStr(1,[PartN],"-")-4,4)