AllAccepted answers
Julius Kavay · May 23, 2022

I was told,  it's illegal to use data structure information, which doesn't were changed in the last 25 years (and after this many years, one could think to have the right given by "customary law" to use it), hence I decided for a more "legal" solution for the above problem - although this solution will work for IRIS (and recent Cache systems) only:

Class DC.Test Extends %RegisteredObject
{

/// Return TRUE if val contains a string
ClassMethod IsString2(val) As %Boolean
{
    quit {"a":(val)}.%GetTypeOf("a")="string"
}

/// Return TRUE if val contains a number (int, real or double)
ClassMethod IsNumber2(val) As %Boolean
{
    quit {"a":(val)}.%GetTypeOf("a")="number"
}

}
Julius Kavay · May 20, 2022

Oh, thanks for the hint, I'm aware of that. Actually one should remove the same characters as used in $locate():

if $locate($zstrip(data,"<w",",."), ...)

but the point is, to circumvent such problems, the rule number one in the electronic data processing is: you have to apply for check each and every input (at least) a formal check or you end up with problems like this. So the desired process should be:

read_data --> check_it --> proceed_if_OK_else_back_to_input

The same goes for data during an import process.

Julius Kavay · May 20, 2022

Try this one. The idea is, find the state (including the separators), everything before is the city and everything after is the zip code. Then we remove the separator chars (whitespaces, commas and dots).

ClassMethod Disjoin(data, cty, sta, zip)
{
    i $locate(data,"(\s|,|\.)[A-Za-z]{2}(\s|,|\.)",3,,sta) {
        s $lb(cty,zip)=$lfs(data,sta), sta=$$s(sta), cty=$$s(cty), zip=$$s(zip)
        
    } else { s (cty,sta,zip)="" }
    
    q sta]""
    
s(x)	q $zstrip(x,"<>w",",.")
}
Some examples
i ##class(DC.Test).Disjoin("CANTON,TX.,75103",.c,.s,.z) w c,", ",s,", ",z --> CANTON, TX, 75103
i ##class(DC.Test).Disjoin("MILFORD, OH 45150",.c,.s,.z) w c,", ",s,", ",z --> MILFORD, OH, 45150
i ##class(DC.Test).Disjoin("MILFORD OH 45150",.c,.s,.z) w c,", ",s,", ",z --> MILFORD, OH, 45150
i ##class(DC.Test).Disjoin("KANSAS CITY, MO, 12345",.c,.s,.z) w c,", ",s,", ",z --> KANSAS CITY, MO, 12345
i ##class(DC.Test).Disjoin("KANSAS CITY MO, 12345",.c,.s,.z) w c,", ",s,", ",z --> KANSAS CITY, MO, 12345
i ##class(DC.Test).Disjoin("ST. LOUIS MO, 12345",.c,.s,.z) w c,", ",s,", ",z --> ST. LOUIS, MO, 12345
i ##class(DC.Test).Disjoin("  ST. LOUIS MO, 12345",.c,.s,.z) w c,", ",s,", ",z --> ST. LOUIS, MO, 12345

OK, something like this gives a wrong result...
i ##class(DC.Test).Disjoin("   ST. LOUIS MO, 12345",.c,.s,.z) w c,", ",s,", ",z --> , ST, LOUIS MO, 12345
Julius Kavay · May 16, 2022 
Class DC.Test Extends %RegisteredObject
{
/// Return TRUE if val contains an string
ClassMethod IsString(val) As %Boolean
{
    q $a($lb(val),2)<3
}
/// Return TRUE if val contains a number (int, real or double)
ClassMethod IsNumber(val) As %Boolean
{
    q $a($lb(val),2)>3
}
}

w ##class(DC.Test).IsString("abc") //--> 1
w ##class(DC.Test).IsString("123") //--> 1
w ##class(DC.Test).IsString(123) //--> 0
w ##class(DC.Test).IsNumber(123) //--> 1
w ##class(DC.Test).IsNumber("abc") //--> 0
w ##class(DC.Test).IsNumber("123") //--> 0
w ##class(DC.Test).IsNumber(123_345) //--> 0
w ##class(DC.Test).IsNumber(123+345) //--> 1
w ##class(DC.Test).IsString(123_456) //--> 1
w ##class(DC.Test).IsString(123+456) //--> 0

s x=123, y="123"
w ##class(DC.Test).IsString(x) //--> 0
w ##class(DC.Test).IsString(y) //--> 1

Julius Kavay · Apr 11, 2022

To help you, help us to help you. This means, show us what you have you already done. So we can you point in the right direction, maybe explain, why your solution dosn't work, etc. It's nothing bad to ask for help. At some point in the time we all were new to Studio and ObjecScript.

Just asking for a solution is like going home from the school and letting the parents make the homework...

So what have you tryed?

Julius Kavay · Apr 4, 2022

First, as you alread wrote, changing the collation of an already existing installation is dengerious,
second, as far as I know, the database creation page (of ManagementPortal) offers you "Cache/IRIS-standard" and "Cache/IRIS-standard string" only. Nevertheless, changing to "standard string" only affects the collation and not the display, i.e. string subscripts will be displayed quoted but numeric subscripts are not quoted.

Julius Kavay · Mar 17, 2022

I'm quite shure, the above code won't work as expected, or with the words of Joseph Weizenbaum: “A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much different from what you had in mind.”

The content of your myf variable is always 0 (the result of comparing nullstring with a filename), the size of tmpFile stream is also 0 (you never write into the stream).

Sometimes it's faster to write a "oneliner" to solve a simple problem then searching and downloading a solution from openexchange or from whereever... That's the beauty of the ObjectScript.

And if you think, the oneliner is worth to be reused, then make it to a method, add some small adjustments for a general usability...

The oneliner

s str="",tmp=##class(%File).TempFilename("txt") o tmp:"NWRU":0 i $t { u tmp zw ^||fruit s s=$zpos r:'$zseek(0) str#s c tmp:"D" }

The more general version

ClassMethod ToString(ref,max=32000)
{
    s tmp=##class(%File).TempFilename("txt") o tmp:"NWRU":0 q:'$t ""
    u tmp zw @ref s siz=$zpos r:'$zseek(0) str#$s(siz>max:max,1:siz) c tmp:"D" q str
}

Use it as

write ##(your.class).ToString($na(^||fruit))