IDL_VALIDNAME
The IDL_VALIDNAME function determines whether a string may be used as a valid IDL variable name or structure tag name. Optionally, the routine can convert non-valid characters into underscores, returning a valid name string.
Examples
The following table provides IDL_VALIDNAME examples and their results.
|
Example |
Result |
|
IDL_VALIDNAME('abc') |
'abc' |
|
IDL_VALIDNAME(' a b c ') |
'' |
|
IDL_VALIDNAME(' a b c ', /CONVERT_SPACES) |
'_a_b_c_' |
|
IDL_VALIDNAME('$var') |
'' |
|
IDL_VALIDNAME('$var', /CONVERT_ALL) |
'_$VAR' |
|
IDL_VALIDNAME('and') |
'' |
|
IDL_VALIDNAME('and', /CONVERT_ALL) |
'_AND' |
|
IDL_VALIDNAME(['and', 'or'], /CONVERT_ALL) |
['_AND', '_OR'] |
Syntax
Result = IDL_VALIDNAME(String [, /CONVERT_ALL] [, /CONVERT_SPACES])
Return Value
Returns the input string or strings, optionally converting all spaces or non-alphanumeric characters to underscores. If an input string cannot be used as a valid variable or structure tag name, an empty string is returned.
Arguments
String
A scalar string or string array or representing the IDL variable or structure tag names to be checked.
Keywords
CONVERT_ALL
If this keyword is set, then each element of String is converted into a valid IDL variable name using the following rules:
- All non-alphanumeric characters (except “_”, “!” and “$”) are converted to underscores
- If the first character is a number or a “$”, then an underscore is prepended to the string
- If the first character is not a valid character (“_”, “!”, “A”…“Z”) then that character is converted to an underscore
- If the element of String is an empty string or a reserved word (such as “AND”) then an underscore is prepended to the string
Tip: The CONVERT_ALL keyword guarantees that a valid variable name is returned. It is useful in converting user-supplied strings into valid IDL variable names.
CONVERT_SPACES
If this keyword is set, then all spaces within each element of String are converted to underscores. If an element of String contains any other non-alphanumeric characters, then an empty string is returned, indicating that the string cannot be used as a valid variable name.
Note: CONVERT_SPACES behaves the same as CREATE_STRUCT when checking structure tag names.
Version History
|
6.0 |
Introduced |
|
6.4 |
Modified to accept string arrays as well as scalar strings |