INSPECT Statement

The INSPECT statement analyzes, counts, or replaces certain character(s) within a variable. It's quite flexible and provides a range of functions to help with string manipulations.

Note! In this topic, "character(s)" means single character or group of characters.

INSPECT statement used to do the following tasks by using its four formats -

INSPECT...TALLYING
INSPECT...REPLACING
INSPECT...TALLYING...REPLACING
INSPECT CONVERTING

INSPECT...TALLYING

INSPECT TALLYING counts the occurrences of the specific characters in the input string. It's an efficient way to decide how many times a particular character appears within a string.

INSPECT   ws-input-string
TALLYING  ws-tally-count 
          FOR [ALL|LEADING] {CHARACTERS|ws-tally-chars}

ws-input-string - The data item that will be inspected for replacements.
ws-tally-count - A numeric variable where the count is stored.
FOR CHARACTERS - Each character is counted.
ws-tally-char - The characters we're searching for in ws-input-string to count.
ALL - Each occurrence of ws-tally-char is counted.
LEADING - The leftmost occurrence of ws-tally-chars is counted.

Examples -

Scenario1 - Counting for ALL character "A".

Input-      WS-DATA = "MAINFRAMES"

Declaration-   05 WS-DATA       PIC X(10) VALUE "MAINFRAMES".
              05 WS-CNT        PIC 9(02).
			  
Code-       INSPECT WS-DATA 
                    TALLYING WS-CNT FOR ALL "A". 

Result-     WS-CNT = 2

Scenario2 - Counting for characters.

Input-      WS-DATA = "MAINFRAMES"

Declaration-   05 WS-DATA       PIC X(10) VALUE "MAINFRAMES".
              05 WS-CNT        PIC 9(02).
			  
Code-       INSPECT WS-DATA 
                    TALLYING WS-CNT FOR CHARACTERS.
   
Result-     WS-CNT = 10

In the above case, WS-DATA has 10 characters. So the result is 10.

INSPECT...REPLACING

INSPECT...REPLACING performs character replacement in a variable. It's a way to replace all instances of certain characters with other characters.

INSPECT   ws-input-string
REPLACING [ALL|LEADING|FIRST] {CHARACTERS|ws-replaced-char} 
          BY ws-replacing-char

ws-replaced-char - The characters we're searching for in input string to replace.
ws-replacing-char - The characters that will replace the ws-replaced-char.
CHARACTERS BY - Each occurrence of character is replaced by a replacing character).
ALL - Each occurrence of ws-replaced-char is replaced by a replacing character.
LEADING - Replaces leftmost occurrence of ws-replaced-char is replaced by ws-replacing-char.
FIRST - Replaces leftmost first occurrence of ws-replaced-char is replaced by ws-replacing-char.

Examples -

Scenario1 - Replace all "-" with "/".

Input-        WS-DATA = "DD-MM-YYYY"

Declaration-  05 WS-DATA        PIC X(10) VALUE "DD-MM-YYYY".

Code-         INSPECT WS-DATA 
                      REPLACING ALL "-" BY "/". 
					  
Result-       WS-DATA = "DD/MM/YYYY"

Scenario2 - Replace characters with '$'.

Input-        WS-DATA = "MAINFRAMES"

Declaration-  05 WS-DATA        PIC X(10) VALUE "MAINFRAMES".

Code-         INSPECT WS-DATA 
                      REPLACING CHARACTERS BY "$".   
					  
Result-       WS-DATA = "$$$$$$$$$$"

In the above case, every character is replaced by '$'. So the result is "$$$$$$$$$$".

INSPECT...TALLYING...REPLACING

INSPECT TALLYING REPLACING counts the occurrences of the specific characters and replaces them with new characters. It performs the TALLYING operation first and REPLACING next.

INSPECT   ws-input-string
TALLYING  ws-tally-count 
          FOR [ALL|LEADING] {CHARACTERS|ws-tally-chars}
REPLACING [ALL|LEADING|FIRST] {CHARACTERS|ws-replaced-char} 
          BY ws-replacing-char

Examples -

Scenario1 - Count for all "-" and Replace all "-" with "/".

Input -  	WS-DATA = "DD-MM-YYYY"
 
Declaration -   05 WS-DATA      PIC X(10) VALUE "DD-MM-YYYY".
                05 WS-CNT               PIC 9(02) VALUE ZEROES.
			  
Code-           INSPECT   WS-DATA 
                TALLYING  WS-CNT FOR ALL "-" 
                REPLACING ALL "-" BY "/". 
			  
Result -        WS-CNT = 2
                WS-DATA = "DD/MM/YYYY"

Scenario2 - Count for no of characters and Replace them with "&".

Input-        WS-DATA = "DD-MM-YYYY"

Declaration-  05 WS-DATA       PIC X(10) VALUE "DD-MM-YYYY".
              05 WS-CNT        PIC 9(02) VALUE ZEROES. 
			  
Code-         INSPECT   WS-DATA 
              TALLYING  WS-CNT FOR CHARACTERS
              REPLACING CHARACTERS BY "&". 
			  
Result-       WS-CNT = 10
              WS-DATA = "&&&&&&&&&&"

In the above case, WS-DATA has 10 characters. So the count result is 10 and replaces all characters with "&". The result is "&&&&&&&&&&".

INSPECT...CONVERTING

INSPECT...CONVERTING performs character conversion in a variable. It's a way to convert all instances of certain characters with other characters.

INSPECT ws-input-string 
	CONVERTING ws-char-1 .... char-n
	TO char-a ... char-z
	[[BEFORE | AFTER] [INITIAL] ws-delimeter].

ws-input-string - The data item that will be inspected for replacements. It should be alphanumeric variable declared with usage DISPLAY.
char-1 ... char-n - The character(s) we're searching for in ws-variable.
char-a ... char-z - The character(s) that will convert the characters char-1 ... char-n.

Examples -

Scenario1 - Conveting all uppercase characters to lowercase.

Input-        WS-DATA = "MAINFRAMES"

Declaration-  05 WS-DATA      PIC X(10) VALUE "MAINFRAMES".

Code-         INSPECT WS-DATA CONVERTING 
              "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" TO
			  "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz". 
			  
Result-       WS-DATA = "mainframes"

The first character 'M' converts to its equal character 'm'. In the second iteration, the second character 'A' converts to its equal character 'a'. Similarly, every character converted with its equal characters. The result is 'mainframes'.

Scenario2 - Conveting all uppercase characters to lowercase before "R".

Input-        WS-DATA = "MAINFRAMES"

Declaration-  05 WS-DATA      PIC X(10) VALUE "MAINFRAMES".

Code-         INSPECT WS-DATA CONVERTING 
              "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" TO
			  "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" BEFORE "R". 
			  
Result-       WS-DATA = "mainfRAMES"

In the above case, it converts all uppercase characters to lowercase characters before "R".

INSPECT Statement