Use the INSPECT statement to inspect characters or groups of
characters in a data item and to optionally replace them.
Use the INSPECT statement to do the following tasks:
- Count the number of times a specific character occurs in a data
item (TALLYING phrase).
- Fill a data item or selected portions of a data
item with specified characters such as spaces, asterisks, or
zeros (REPLACING phrase).
- Convert all occurrences of a specific character or string
of characters in a data item to replacement characters that you
specify (CONVERTING phrase).
You can specify one of the following data items as the
item to be inspected:
- An elementary item described explicitly or implicitly as USAGE DISPLAY, USAGE DISPLAY-1, or USAGE NATIONAL
- An alphanumeric group item or national group
item
If the inspected item has:
- USAGE DISPLAY, each identifier in the statement (except
the TALLYING count field) must have USAGE DISPLAY, and each literal in the statement must be
alphanumeric
- USAGE NATIONAL, each identifier in the statement (except
the TALLYING count field) must have USAGE NATIONAL, and each literal in the statement must be
national
- USAGE DISPLAY-1, each identifier in the statement (except
the TALLYING count field) must have USAGE DISPLAY-1, and each literal in the statement must be
a DBCS literal
Examples: INSPECT statement