5. Working with String Data

Text-based data can contain more than just the letters of the alphabet. Numbers can be treated as text, and there are many characters that are neither letters nor numbers, but are vital to text-based work. Consider tabs, carriage returns, spaces, backspaces, and many of the symbols used in everyday work (hyphens, currency symbols, etc.). These all need to be as accessible and pliable as the letters and numbers.

In this chapter, you'll find recipes illustrating how to find text strings within other text strings, how to replace text strings with others, and how to remove unwanted spaces from text strings. There's also a recipe that discusses different methods for combining text strings, and one that reveals how to sort numbers that are stored as text.