INDEX

(Non-SAA Function)

INDEX is a non-SAA built-in function provided only by TSO/E and VM.

POS is the preferred built-in function for obtaining the position of one string in another. See POS (Position) for a complete description.


>>-INDEX(haystack,needle--+--------+--)------------------------><
                          '-,start-'

returns the character position of one string, needle, in another, haystack, or returns 0 if the string needle is not found or is a null string. By default the search starts at the first character of haystack (start has the value 1). You can override this by specifying a different start point, which must be a positive whole number.

Here are some examples:

INDEX('abcdef','cd')      ->    3
INDEX('abcdef','xd')      ->    0
INDEX('abcdef','bc',3)    ->    0
INDEX('abcabc','bc',3)    ->    5
INDEX('abcabc','bc',6)    ->    0