Re: instr does not work with filenames containing more that 2 '/' s. Any ideas ???

Krishna wrote:

> Hi,
> I am trying to determine the exact position of the third '/'
> character in a filename string containing more than 3 three '/'
> characters, both from the beginning as well as from the end. For some
> strange reason, the instr function always seems to be returning the
> value of the 2nd '/', depending on the point of search (beginning of
> the string or the end of the string).
>
> For eg :-
>
> select instr('/apps/oracle/product/8.1.7/network/admin/tnsnames.ora','/',3)
> from dual;
>
> will return the value 6, which should be the same if the value '3'
> were substitued by '2'.
>
> If searching from the end of the string as in
>
> select instr('/apps/oracle/product/8.1.7/network/admin/tnsnames.ora','/',-3)
> from dual;
>
> The above instr statement, will always return 41, which should be the
> same if the '-3' were substituted with '-2'.
>
> Is this a bug or am I missing something ? Please help !!!
>
> Best Wishes,
> krishna.
>

Hi Krisna,

instr is used with 4 values; ie. instr('string','search_string', search_from_position, #occurence_of_search_string). You search for '/' (first occurence of) from position 3 or -3. Check the manual.

Rgds
/Svend Jensen Received on Tue Apr 30 2002 - 07:08:31 CDT