String modifiers

Learn how to manipulate string values in CQL.

String modifiers are natural language functions for manipulating string values. These functions are useful for tasks that involve transforming text, such as changing the case, replacing parts, and other text manipulations.

This is the summary of the available number modifiers for quick reference:

Modifier	Description
Change case	Change the case of a string to a specified style.
Replace	Replace a target substring or pattern with a specified replacement.

Change case

This modifier changes the case of a string to a specified style.

It can be useful for formatting strings consistently, especially when you don't have control over the input. For example, if you want to display a user's name in a welcome message, you can use the title case to ensure proper capitalization.

Syntax

This modifier has the following syntax:

/*<value>*/ in /*<style>*/ case

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The /*<style>*/ is a literal word that specifies the case style and cannot be specified dynamically using expressions.

Here is a list of the supported styles:

Style	Description
lower	Change all characters to lowercase. For example, "Hello World" becomes "hello world".
upper	Change all characters to uppercase. For example, "Hello World" becomes "HELLO WORLD".
title	Change the first character of each word to uppercase, and all others to lowercase. For example, "Hello world" becomes "Hello World".
sentence	Change the first character of each sentence to uppercase, and all others to lowercase. For example, "Hello World" becomes "Hello world".

Parameters

These are the supported parameters:

value string: The string for which to change the case.

Examples

Here is a basic example of how to ensure that a user's name is properly capitalized:

user's name in title case // John Doe

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To understand the difference between the title and sentence case, consider the following example:

"THE QUICK BROWN FOX" in title case // The Quick Brown Fox

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Now, compare it with the sentence case:

"THE QUICK BROWN FOX" in sentence case // The quick brown fox

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Note that the entire sentence is affected, not just the first word.

Replace

This modifier replaces a target substring or pattern with a specified replacement.

Optionally, you can specify the occurrence of the pattern to replace and the offset to start the search for more control over the replacement. And for more advanced replacements, you can even use regular expressions.

Syntax

The basic syntax for this modifier is:

/*<value>*/ replacing /*<pattern>*/ with /*<replacement>*/

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To replace a specific occurrence of the pattern, use the following syntax:

/*<value>*/ replacing /*<occurrence>*/ occurrence of /*<pattern>*/ with /*<replacement>*/

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You can use any ordinal to specify the occurrence, including the words first, second, third, and so on.

You can also prefix the ordinal with a definite article to make the expression more readable:

/*<value>*/ replacing the /*<occurrence>*/ occurrence of /*<pattern>*/ with /*<replacement>*/

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To start the search at a specific offset, use this syntax:

/*<value>*/ replacing /*<pattern>*/ from /*<offset>*/ with /*<replacement>*/

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Parameters

These are the supported parameters:

value string: The string in which to replace the pattern.
pattern string|regex: A string or regular expression to match.
replacement string: A string to replace the matched pattern.
occurrence(optional) ordinal: An ordinal literal indicating which occurrence of the matched pattern to replace.
Default:all occurrences
offset(optional) integer: A zero-based index indicating where to start the search for the pattern.
Default:starts at the beginning of the string

Examples

Here is a basic example of how to replace a substring:

"Hello World" replacing "World" with "CQL" // Hello CQL

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You can replace a specific occurrence of the pattern by specifying an ordinal:

"Hello World" replacing the first occurrence of "l" with "1" // He1lo World

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To replace the last occurrence, use a negative ordinal:

"Hello World" replacing the last occurrence of "l" with "1" // Hello Wor1d

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For more complex replacements, you can use regular expressions:

" Hello World  " replacing ~/^\s+|\s+$/ with "" // Hello World

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The above example removes all leading and trailing whitespace from the string by replacing the pattern with an empty string.