GetColumn ( text ; columnNumber ; columnDelimiter )

Returns a list of values from the requested column in text.

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Michael Horak
*COMMENT Visual Realisation
http://comment.cjb.net/

Sample input:

GetColumn (
"1|2|3¶a|b|c¶x|y|z" ;
2 ;
"|"
)

Sample output:

2
b
y

Function definition: (Copy & paste into FileMaker's Edit Custom Function window)

/*
GetColumn function

Author
*COMMENT Visual Realisation

Format
GetColumn ( text ; columnNumber ; columnDelimiter )

Parameters
text - any text expression or text field
columnNumber - any numeric expression or field containing a number
columnDelimiter - any text expression or text field

Data type returned
text

Description
Returns a carriage return-delimited list of values from the requested column in a tabular text array.

July 7, 2008
*/

Let ( [
row  = GetValue ( text ; 1 ) ;
cell = MiddleValues ( Substitute ( row ; columnDelimiter ; ¶ ) ; columnNumber ; 1 ) ;
countRows = ValueCount ( text )
] ; 
cell
&
Case ( 
countRows > 1 ; 
GetColumn ( RightValues ( text ; countRows - 1 ) ; columnNumber ; columnDelimiter )
)
)

Returns a carriage return-delimited list of values from the requested column in a tabular text array.

Comments

		Henry, Breda Feb 7, 2016
Ran into an issue with the 2008 version above, it caused Filemaker to use many GB's memory within 30 seconds and becoming unresponsive when getting columns from a (large) set of data. Found modified version which solved this entirely on the following page, from Mike_Mitchell https://community.filemaker.com/message/171033#171033

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