Picture strings (string, string1)

A picture string in a FIND, CHANGE, or EXCLUDE command allows you to search for a particular kind of character without regard for the specific character involved. You can use special characters within the picture string to represent the kind of character to be found, as follows:

String

Meaning

P'='

Any character

P'¬'

Any character that is not a blank

P'.'

Any character that cannot be displayed

P'#'

Any numeric character, 0-9

P'-'

Any nonnumeric character

P'@'

Any alphabetic character, uppercase or lowercase

P'<'

Any lowercase alphabetic character

P'>'

Any uppercase alphabetic character

P'$'

Any special character, neither alphabetic nor numeric

If you are using an APL or TEXT keyboard, you can use these additional characters in a picture string:

P''

Any APL-specific or TEXT-specific character

P'_'

Any underscored nonblank character

A picture string can include alphanumeric characters, which represent themselves, mixed with other characters. If the character does not have a special meaning (such as @ standing for any alphabetic), the character is treated as itself.

When using a DBCS terminal, you cannot specify a DBCS field as the subject of a picture string for the FIND operation.

When processing a picture string the interpretation of characters is based on the PDF terminal translation tables that are loaded. For example, characters that cannot be displayed are determined using the translation tables for generic string characters and generic string special characters.