Mapping question: How to only pass on a certain number of characters?

Question

I'm mapping a phone number from the idoc to the XML file.
I only want to send the first 12 characters of a phone number.
For example, if the phone comes in as, "123-456-7890 Ext 44", I only want to send "123-456-7890".
I thought I could use the substring function(0 to 12), but I get an error if the phone is not exacly 12 characters long.
I need to be able to process the value of the phone number if it's:
Blank
Has text like "no phone".
1234567890
123-456-7890
Is there a std function to do this, or would I need a custom java udf?
Thanks,
jeff

Answer 1

Jeff,
you can write a UDF with the following conditions.
I am not so good at Java programming. Hence I am giving you the logic try to draft a UDF using Java.
for(i=0; i<=11; i++) //worst case you are interested in first 12 values in the incoming payload incl "-"
1. If the read character is one of the alphabets or "" do not pass //to take care of blank or no phone or NA
2. If the read character is - do not pass.
3. If the read value is digit, pass it
if the concatenated string == 10 then pass it to target field.
if concatenated string =="", do not pass or take corresponding action.
this ways, the "NA" or "no Phone" or "" will be filtered out
Hope its useful
Venkat.