Warning on trimming strings with @Trim and Trim

I have been using LotusScript for years but have just found out that Trim(<string&>) in LotusScript is not the equivalent of @Trim in the formula language!

@Trim also removes redundant spaces within the string as well as leading and trailing white space, which the basic LotusScript Trim doesn't. While this normally might not make much of a difference, it does if you use both LotusScript and Formula language to build field values when the data changes in an external data source. The correct equivalent of @Trim is FullTrim in LotusScript with an example of its use below.

employeeName = firstname & " " & lastName
employeeName = FullTrim(EmployeeName)
doc.ED_FullName = employeeName
NB: You have to call Fulltrim after you have assembled your string, as it doesn't seem to like being wrapped around a formula (which you can do with Trim), as shown in the example above.

The issue came to light in a data conversion, as the data source for employee details was a relational database in which users were not shy about adding extra spaces wherever they felt like it, which really messed up my views -- especially those categorized by employee name.

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This was first published in October 2003

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