Functions Reference

Text functions
F
ILEMAKER FUNCTIONS REFERENCE 319
Position
Purpose
Returns the starting position of the specified occurrence of searchString in text.
Format
Position(text;searchString;start;occurrence)
Parameters
text - any text expression or text field
searchString - any text expression or text field representing the set of characters you want to
find.
start - any numeric expression, or field containing a number, representing the number of
characters from the start of the text string at which to begin the search. A start value of 1 or less
begins the search from the first character of the text string.
occurrence - any numeric expression or field containing a number, representing which instance of
the text string you want to find. A negative occurrence value causes the scan to go in the opposite
direction from start. A zero value for occurrence is invalid and returns a result of zero.
Data type returned
number
Originated in
FileMaker Pro 6.0 or earlier
Description
This function is not case-sensitive. If searchString isn’t contained in text or if there was no
specified occurrence, zero is returned.
Examples
Position(“Mississippi”;“iss”;1;1) returns 2.
Position(“Mississippi”;“iss”;1;2) returns 5.
Position(“Mississippi”;“iss”;3;1) returns 5.
Left(Name;Position(Name;“ “;1;1)-1) returns William, when Name is a text field that
contains William Smith.
Right(Name;Length(Name) - Position(Name;“ “;Length(Name);-1)) returns Smith.