Mr Long Grade: 10 Version: Beta

Video Education Subject: Information Technology Topic: String Handling

Mr L ong ON STRING HANDLING

Understanding strings
Strings
 Data type used to store text
 Size (in bytes) is dependent on how it is declared.
o Uses ONE byte for the length of the text (characters in the string) and the rest is
used to store the characters (ONE byte for each character).

Examples:
String Declaration Description
var sReport : string ; Unlimited number of characters. Memory is
allocated to the string as needed.
String can contain 30 characters.
var sName : string[30] ; 30 + 1 (for the length of the string) = 31 bytes will
be reserved to store this string.
var sUsername : ShortString ; ShortString can contain up to 255 characters.

 Strings are written between single quotes:

Example: sName := ‘Bruce’ ;
 An empty string is a string which contains 0 characters. It is indicated by two single
quotes with nothing between them (NOT even a space).
Example: sName := ‘’ ;

 Each character in a string is allocated a position where 1 is the first character in the
string.

Example:
sTemp := ‘Hello World’ ;

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

H e l l o W o r l D

o H is the first character at position 1.

o D is the last character at position 11.
o o is the character at position 5.
o Space character is at position 6.

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Mr Long Grade: 10 Version: Beta
Video Education Subject: Information Technology Topic: String Handling

 Each character in a string can be referenced by using the string’s variable name
followed by the position number of the character in square brackets.
 Examples:
String Declaration Description
sName := sTemp[ 1 ] ; The first character in sTemp is stored in the
sName string.
sName := sTemp[ 8 ] ; The eighth character in sTemp is stored in the
sName string.
iNum := Random( 6 ) + 1 ; iNum is a random number from 1 to 6.
A random character (the value of iNum) in sTemp
sName := sTemp[ iNum ] ; is stored in the sName string.

String Functions
 A function is called with specific parameters and returns ONE value
 String functions do not all return string values, some return other data types, but the
are used when handling strings.

NOTE: For the examples below, we will refer to sTemp := ‘Hello World’ ;
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

H e l l o W o r l D

Length function
 Requires ONE string parameter
 Returns an integer value that represents the number of characters in the given string.
Code Description
iNum := length( sTemp ) ; iNum = 11 (Number of characters in the sTemp
string)
for i := 1 to length( sTemp ) do
begin Loop from 1 to the length of the sTemp string
memDisplay.Lines.Add( sTemp[ i ] ) ; (11) and display each character of sTemp.
end ;

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Mr Long Grade: 10 Version: Beta
Video Education Subject: Information Technology Topic: String Handling

Pos function
 Requires TWO string parameters: a substring and a string
 Returns an integer value that represents the position of the first letter of the substring
in the string (what position is the substring contained in the string).
Code Description
iNum := pos( ‘lo’ , sTemp ) ; iNum = 4 (Position of the substring “lo” in
sTemp.)
iNum = 3 (Position of the substring “l” in sTemp.)
iNum := pos( ‘l’ , sTemp ) ; NOTE: If multiple occurrences, result will be the first
occurrence of the substring.
iNum = 0 (Position of the substring “word” in
iNum := pos( ‘word’ , sTemp ) ; sTemp.)
NOTE: If no occurrence of substring, then zero is
returned.
iNum = 0 (Position of the substring “world” in
sTemp.)
iNum := pos( ‘world’ , sTemp ) ; NOTE: Must match case as well. World and world are
not the same string (capital first letter vs small first
letter).

Copy function
 Requires ONE string parameter, followed by TWO integer parameters (first
representing starting position and the second representing the length)
 Returns a string value that is a copy of all the characters in the string parameter
starting from position of starting position integer parameter and copies the number of
characters of the length integer parameter.
NOTE: It is NOT from the starting position integer to the second integer, but from the starting
position, for the second integer number of character.
Code Description
sExtra := copy( sTemp, 3, 5 ) ; sExtra = ‘llo W’ (Copies from position 3, for 5
characters: character 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7)
sExtra = ‘World’ (Copies from position 7, for 10
characters)
sExtra := copy( sTemp, 7, 10 ) ; NOTE: If the number of characters to copy goes
beyond the end of the string, it will only copy the
characters until the end of the string.
sExtra := copy( sTemp, 2, 2 ) ; sExtra = ‘el’ (Copies from position 2, for 2
characters: character 2 & 3)
sExtra = ‘Hello ’ (Copies from position 1, for the
sExtra := copy( sTemp, 1, pos( ‘ ‘, sTemp ) ; number of characters until the position of the
first space in the sTemp string)
NOTE: The space is included in the copy.

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Mr Long Grade: 10 Version: Beta
Video Education Subject: Information Technology Topic: String Handling

Uppercase and Lowercase function

 Requires ONE string parameter.
 Returns a string value that is a copy of the string parameter but in all capital letters
(with Uppercase) or in all small letters (with Lowercase).
Code Description
sExtra := Uppercase( sTemp ) ; sExtra = ‘HELLO WORLD’ (Copies sTemp in capital
letters)
sExtra := Lowercase( sTemp ) ; sExtra = ‘hello world’ (Copies sTemp in small
letters)
sTemp := Uppercase( sTemp ) ; sTemp is replaced with itself but in capital letters.

Concat function
 Requires at least TWO string parameters but can take in many.
 Returns all the given string parameters as ONE string.
NOTE: It is a replacement for using the + symbol when combining strings
Code Description
sExtra = ‘Hello World Goodbye’ (Combines
sExtra := Concat( sTemp, ‘ ‘, ‘Goodbye’ ) ; sTemp, space string and ‘Goodbye’ string into
one string)

String Procedures
 A procedure is simply called with specific parameters.
 Examples below will continue to use the sTemp string (sTemp := ‘Hello World’).

Insert procedure
 Requires TWO string parameters (first representing the subString that will be
inserted and the second representing the string that the subString will be inserted
into), followed by ONE integer parameter.
 The substring string parameter will be inserted into the second string parameter
starting at the position specified by the integer parameter.
Code Description
Insert ( ‘YES’, sTemp, 3 ) ; sTemp = ‘HeYESllo World’ (inserts the string ‘YES’
into sTemp starting at position 3)
sTemp = ‘Hello WorldYES’ (inserts the string ‘YES’
Insert ( ‘YES’ , sTemp, 15 ) ; into sTemp starting at position 15 but because
sTemp is only 11 characters in length, it simply
inserts it at the end of sTemp)

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Mr Long Grade: 10 Version: Beta
Video Education Subject: Information Technology Topic: String Handling

Delete procedure
 Requires ONE string parameter, followed by TWO integer parameters (first
representing starting position and the second representing the length)
 Characters in the string parameter will be removed starting from starting position
integer parameter and will remove the number of characters of the length integer
parameter.
NOTE: It is NOT from the starting position integer to the second integer, but from the starting
position, for the second integer number of character.
Code Description
Delete ( sTemp, 3, 5 ) ; sTemp = ‘Heorld’ (deletes sTemp from position 3,
for 5 characters: character 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7)
sTemp = ‘Hello Wo’ (deletes sTemp from position
9, for 10 characters)
Delete ( sTemp, 9, 10 ) ; NOTE: If the number of characters to delete goes
beyond the end of the string, it will only delete the
characters until the end of the string.
sTemp = ‘World ’ (deletes sTemp from position 1,
Delete ( sTemp, 1, pos( ‘ ‘, sTemp ) ; for the number of characters until the position of
the first space in the sTemp string)

Character functions
 These functions deal with char data types (characters or strings of length 1)

Upcase function
 Requires ONE char (character) parameter.
 Returns the given char parameter value but in capital letters.
Code Description
cLetter := Upcase( sTemp[ 3 ] ) ; cLetter = ‘L’ (Copies sTemp‘s third letter but in
capital letters)
sTemp[ 1 ] := Upcase( sTemp[ 1 ] ) ; The first character in sTemp is converted to
uppercase.

NOTE: In computers, each character is represented by an ASCII code. ASCII codes are
used to represent text when storing the numerical code in a byte.

Ord function
 Requires ONE char (character) parameter.
 Returns the ASCII code of the character parameter.
Code Description
iNum := Ord( ‘B’ ) ; iNum = 66 (ASCII Code of a capital B is 66)
iNum := Ord( ‘b’ ) ; iNum = 98 (ASCII Code of a lowercase B is 98)
iNum := Ord( ‘?’ ) ; iNum = 63 (ASCII Code of a question mark is 63)

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Mr Long Grade: 10 Version: Beta
Video Education Subject: Information Technology Topic: String Handling

Chr function
 Requires ONE integer parameter.
 Returns the character (char) associated with the ASCII code integer parameter.
Code Description
cLetter := Chr( 70 ) ; cLetter = ‘F’ (Capital F’s ASCII Code is 70)
cLetter := Chr( 111 ) ; cLetter = ‘o’ (Lower case O’s ASCII Code is 111)
cLetter := Chr( 55 ) ; cLetter = ‘7’ (Text 7’s ASCII Code is 55)

3 Techniques with String Handling

When dealing with strings there are 3 common types of scenarios that require 3 different
techniques:
 Extracting sections or blocks of text from a string
 Traversing a string to check each character
 Recreating or building a new string
NOTE: There are other types of scenarios, but these are the more common scenarios

Extracting sections or blocks of text from a string

 Involves have a string and you want to extract sections of the text out of the string.
For example:
o Copy the first 5 characters, then the next 3 characters.
o Extract each word in a string when a space character indicates the end of
each word.
o Comma separated string where each block of data is separated by a comma.
 More complicated examples are when the size of the sections to be extracted are not
constant but are indicated a delimiter (comma or hash).
Example: Surname<comma>Name<comma>IDCode
Banner,Bruce,12345

 Suggested technique:
o Find the position of the first delimiter (comma, hash space, etc)
o Copy from 1 until the position of the delimiter – 1
NOTE: You don’t want to also copy the delimiter, hence the -1
o Delete from 1 until the position of the delimiter
NOTE: Remove the section of string that you have stored to work with what’s
remaining.
o Continue this process for each section of data EXCEPT the last remaining
section.
o By deleting each section after storing it’s value, you will eventually be left with
just the last section of data and NO delimiter. You can simply store the last
section of data, as is, in the appropriate variable.

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Mr Long Grade: 10 Version: Beta
Video Education Subject: Information Technology Topic: String Handling

Consider the example of extracting the data from: Banner,Bruce,12345

Sample Code – Extracting sections

sLine := ‘Banner,Bruce,12345’ ;
iComma := pos( ‘,’ , sLine ) ; //find position of first delimiter (comma) in sLine
sSurname := Copy( sLine, 1, iComma – 1 ) ; //copy surname from position 1 to one before comma
Delete( sLine, 1, iComma ) ; //remove copied section: sLine = Bruce,12345
//repeat the process for Name
iComma := pos( ‘,’ , sLine ) ; //find position of first delimiter (comma) in sLine
sName := Copy( sLine, 1, iComma – 1 ) ; //copy name from position 1 to one before comma
Delete( sLine, 1, iComma ) ; //remove copied section: sLine = 12345
//last section is what is left in sLine
iCode := StrToInt( sLine ) ; //convert because data is integer

If more sections needed to be extracted, then repeat the first process until you are left with the final section of
data. If string consists of different delimiters (# for first section, $ for second, etc) then find the position of each
different delimiter.

Traversing a string to check each character

 Involves having to count or compare each individual character of a string.
For example:
o Count the number of M’s in a string.
o Count the number of vowels in a string.

 Suggested technique:
o Loop from 1 to the length of the string
Example: for K := 1 to length( sLine ) do
o Compare string at position loop variable with what you are counting or
required
Example: if sLine[ K ] = … then

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Mr Long Grade: 10 Version: Beta
Video Education Subject: Information Technology Topic: String Handling

Consider the example of counting all the vowels in the string sLine.
Sample Code – Traversing string

iCount := 0 ; //initialise the vowel counter

for K := 1 to length( sLine ) do //loop through each character in sLine
begin
if sLine[ K ] IN [‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’ , ‘o’ ,’u’ ] then //check if character is a vowel
begin
Inc( iCount ) ; //increase vowel counter when vowel found
end ; // end of if
end ; //end of for

showmessage( Inttostr( iCount ) + ‘ vowels in ‘ + sLine ) ; //display vowel counter

This example would not count capital letter vowel characters. Either add the capital vowels to the set after the
IN operator or use if lowercase( sLine[ K ] IN….

Recreating or building a new string

 Involves having to add onto a string or construct a string.
For example:
o Create a comma separate string with a name, surname and ID variables.
o Create a string that is in the reverse order of characters of a specific string.

 Suggested technique:
o If a few components to add, you simply use the + operator to add all the
different components of the string.
o If many components are needed, then initialise your string to the empty string,
then add each component individually.
Example: sNew := ‘’ ;
sNew := sNew + sName + ‘,’ ;

Consider the example of creating a reverse version of sLine (hello = olleh).

Sample Code – Constructing a string

sNew := ‘’ ; //initialise the new string to empty string

for K := length( sLine ) downto 1 do //loop through each character in sLine in reverse order
begin
sNew := sNew + sLine[ K ] ; //add each character individually to sNew
end ; //end of for
showmessage( sNew ) ; //display sNew string which is sLine in reverse

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Mr Long Grade: 10 Version: Beta
Video Education Subject: Information Technology Topic: String Handling

Additional Links:
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