Name

position — returns the index of an element within an array or string

Synopsis

position ( element any ,
array any ,
start_index integer (optional, default 1) ,
step integer (optional, default 1) );

Description

position returns the one-based index for the first occurrence of element within an array or string , beginning from offset start_index and iterating with step. If the second argument is a string , the first argument must be a string with a single character. If the second argument is an array of any , then depending of type of it's elements same type is expected as the first argument.

Parameters

element

any , depends of type of elements in second argument .

array

array , vector or string .

start_index

integer index beginning from 1; from where to start search.

step

integer the step between elements to be tested; default is 1 (every element)

Return Values

An integer index in array starting from 1; if not found returns zero.

Errors

Table24.72.Errors signalled by position

SQLState Error Code Error Text Description
22003 SR061 position: expects a vector whose length is divisible by [step], not of length [actual len].
22023 SR000 position expects an array or vector, not an arg of type %d.

Examples

Example24.245.Simple examples

SQL> select position ('b', 'Abacus');
callret
VARCHAR
_______________________________________________________________________________

2

1 Rows. -- 3 msec.
SQL> select position (2, vector ('Primero', null, 2, 3.333));
callret
VARCHAR
_______________________________________________________________________________

3

1 Rows. -- 4 msec.

SQL> select position ('a', 'babaab', 1, 2);
                                ^--- matches 5-th as other 'a' are skipped as step is 2 chars
callret
INTEGER
_______________________________________________________________________________

5

1 Rows. -- 4 msec.