Extracting a character string of varying lengths and positions

[#1]

I want to extract character strings from a variable (Dx1), but the length and position of the strings varies, but they are separated by dashes. Sometimes there are multiple dashes. For example...

"7812-abcdef     -9"

"v7892-xyz    -0"

"812-fghkj    -0"

"17361-gf-jhyt   -9"

What I would like to do is create a new variable that extracts the digits/characters before the first dash, and then another variable that extracts the characters between the first and second dashes. So,

Var1      Var2

7812      abcdef

v7892    xyz

812        fghkj

17361    gf-jhyt

I tried following the example posted here, but it just extracted the dash. Changing the +1 to another number extacts that number of characters, but my data length varies.

https://community.jmp.com/t5/Uncharted/JSL-Character-String-Functions/ba-p/21323

Here's what I wrote. What am I doing wrong?

Trim(
Substr(
:Name( "Dx1" ),
Contains( :Name( "Dx1" ), "-" ),
1
)
)

[#2]

@jswislar : 
     One way to tackle this could be to use Contains and Substr functions 

a = {"abc-12","abc - 45","abc-  89"}; 
List1 = list(); 
List2 = list(); 
For(i = 1 , i <= N Items(a), i++,
		Pos = Contains(a[i],"-"); 
		Insert Into(List1,Substr(a[i],1,Pos-1)); 
		Insert Into(List2,Substr(a[i],Pos+1,Length(a[i]))); 
   );

[#3]

The words function is your friend here.  Use the dash and space as delimiters and you can extract what you want easily.  Here's an example that uses formulas in a table:

dt = New Table( "Untitled", Add Rows( 4 ), 
	New Column( "dx1", Character, "Nominal",
		Set Values( {"7812-abcdef     -9", "v7892-xyz    -0", "812-fghkj    -0",
			"17361-gf-jhyt   -9"}
		)
	),
// Get the first word for Var1
	New Column( "Var1", Character, "Nominal", Formula( Words( :dx1, "- " )[1] ) ),

// Get the second word for Var1
	New Column( "Var2", Character, "Nominal", Formula( Words( :dx1, "- " )[2] ) )
);

[#4 · Accepted solution]

You want to use the Word() function.  If you create a new column, "Var1", and place the below formula into the column, you will get the results you want

word(1,:Dx1,"-")

For Var2 it would be:

word(2,:Dx1,"-")

The Word() function is documented in the Scripting Index

     Help==>Scripting Index==>Word

[#5]

Thanks! That works well.

[#6]

Is there a way to get WORD to ignore some dashes? Some of the second words I'm trying to extract are hyphenated, so I'm only getting a partial extraction. For example, for "938-ex-marine" I get "938" and "ex" rather than "ex-marine"

[#7]

JSL will allow the building and parsing of any these complex conditions.  It is up to the humans to determine what the rules are for such parsing.

In your example, what is the rule to determine what hyphenated values should be read as a combined value, and when to treat them as separate values?

[#8]

The only rule that I can think of that would be consistent would be that the second word appears beween numbers (#). Ultimately I want the phrase between the hyphens. So, "#-word     -#" and "#-word-word     -#" and "#-word-word word     -#"

[#9]

Here is a formula that will do what you stated as the rule....

Final_Value = Word( 2, :Dx1, "-" );
i = 3;
(While( Is Missing( Num( Word( i, :Dx1, "-" ) ) ) == 1,
	Final_Value = Final_Value || "-" || Word( i, :Dx1, "-" );
	i++;
) ; Final_Value);

However, in your sample above, the sample "17361-gf-jhyt   -9" ends up with a Var2 value of "gf-jhyt".  Is that what you want?

Regardless, I hope you can  see that you can construct as complex of a formula as you may need to parse the string into whatevery the correct values are.  The only limitation is that you need to be able to determine the rules that need to be used.

[#10]

Thanks, Jim. That is what I was looking for.
How do I run this script? I tried it as a column formula. That didn't work, but I didn't expect it to. I also opened a script window and ran it there, but it just stopped responding.