Name

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STRCOMPRESS2

Purpose

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Remove blanks around specified characters in a string

Calling Sequence

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newstring = strcompress2( st, chars)

Inputs

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      st - any scalar string
      chars - scalar or vector string specifing which characters around which
            blanks should be removed. For example, if chars=['=','-','+']
              then spaces around the three characters "=', '-', and '+' will
            be removed.

Outputs

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      newstring - input string with spaces removed around the specified
        characters.

Example

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      The Vizier constraint string (see queryvizier.pro) does not allow
      blanks around the operators '=','<', or '>'. But we do not want
      to remove blanks around names (e.g. 'NGC 5342'):
 
      IDL> st = 'name = NGC 5342, v< 23'
      IDL> print,strcompress2(st, ['=','<','>'])
            name=NGC 5342, v<23

Modification History

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Written by W.Landsman July 2008