How do I remove ( ) parenthesis from data on VFP 9.0

Question

How do I remove ( ) from data on VFP 9.0. I want to also delete dashes -

Answer 1

In Visual FoxPro 9.0, use STRTRAN() to remove specific characters like parentheses and dashes from a character field or string.

Example for a field called cData in a table:

* Remove left parenthesis
REPLACE ALL cData WITH STRTRAN(cData, "(", "")

* Remove right parenthesis
REPLACE ALL cData WITH STRTRAN(cData, ")", "")

* Remove dashes
REPLACE ALL cData WITH STRTRAN(cData, "-", "")

To do it in one expression without multiple REPLACE commands:

REPLACE ALL cData WITH STRTRAN(STRTRAN(STRTRAN(cData, "(", ""), ")", ""), "-", "")

If working with a variable instead of a field:

lcText = "(123)-456-7890"
lcText = STRTRAN(STRTRAN(STRTRAN(lcText, "(", ""), ")", ""), "-", "")
* Result: "1234567890"

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References:

• Top ten ways to clean your data