topic Left function behavior in Discussions

Left function behavior

john_madden — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 21:42:16 GMT

I'm having an odd behavior with Left(). Consider the following:

Left( "A", 2, " ")

I anticipate the result will be "A " (i.e. padded on the right with a space). And indeed this is what I get.

However, When I use the same expression in a column formula like this:

Left( :Input, 2, " ")

and I have "A" as the value in Input, I am just getting "A" in the result column (i.e. no right space).

Am I missing something?

Re: Left function behavior

Craige_Hales — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 23:33:03 GMT

I think you are hitting a rule that trims trailing spaces from character data in data tables. This works:

Append a non-space after the left function's result

Re: Left function behavior

john_madden — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 06:34:20 GMT

Is that a built-in JMP rule that is always on? It’s fine if so, I just didn’t know it existed.

Re: Left function behavior

john_madden — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 06:36:36 GMT

Re: Left function behavior

Craige_Hales — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 12:16:46 GMT

Removing trailing spaces can't be turned off. JMP removes the trailing spaces so other code that does grouping can run faster and not make two groups that seem to have the same identifier.