Re: [groff] Changing A Defined String

[Robert Thorsby]

On 26/01/18 01:22:39, Tadziu Hoffmann wrote:
> If you want the following behavior:
>
>   .ds DATE*FULL <modified date>
>   The updated short date is \*[DATE*SHORT].

Thank you Ralph and Tadziu,

The answer lay in Ralph's suggestion of the .substring request,  
combined with good old nested conditionals.

Since the character count for DayOfWeek in English is 6-9 the nesting  
was ``only'' four levels deep.  I created the ds FIND*COMMA from  
DATE*FULL and used .substring to find the pairing ``, ''.  I created  
the ds DATE*SHORT and subjected it to the successful .substring  
request.  I did not have to use .length because I was removing  
characters from the front only, and .substring takes care of that.

The only thing worth mentioning is that FIND*COMMA must be redefined at  
the beginning of each nested conditional, having been irrevocably  
altered during the previous conditional.

Robert