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Merge directive

Merge directive

Owned by Robin Rielley
Last updated: Jun 16, 2020
1 min read

The MERGE directive merges two columns by inserting a third column into a record. The values in the third column are merged values from the two columns delimited by a specified separator.

Syntax

merge :column1 :column2 :destination 'seperator'

  • The column1 and column2 values are merged using a separator. The columns to be merged must both exist and should be of type string for the merge to be successful.

  • The destination is the new column that will be added to the record. If the column already exists, the contents will be replaced.

  • The separator is the character or string to be used to separate the values in the new column. It is specified between single quotes. For example, a space character: ' '.

  • The existing columns are not dropped by this directive.

Usage Notes

The columns to be merged should both be of type string.

Examples

Using this record as an example:

{ "first": "Root", "last": "Joltie" }

Applying these directives:

merge :first :last "fullname ' ' merge :first :last :fullname ''' merge :first :last :fullname '\u000A' merge :first :last :fullname '---'

results in these records:

Separator is a single space character (' '):

{ "first": "Root", "last": "Joltie", "fullname": "Root Joltie" }

Separator is a single quote character ('''):

{ "fname" : "Joltie", "lname" : "Root", "name" : "Joltie'Root" }

Separator is the UTF-8 Line Feed character ('\u000A'):

{ "fname" : "Joltie", "lname" : "Root", "name" : "Joltie\nRoot" }

Separator is multiple characters ('---'):

{ "fname" : "Joltie", "lname" : "Root", "name" : "Joltie---Root" }

 

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