ColdFusion, Strings, Masks and Filters

Purpose: Applies generic masks to filtered strings
Method: brute force

Attributes:

• value - the value to which we apply the mask
• result - variable in which to store the answer, defaults to "out"
• mask - mask to apply to the value
• filter - prefilter of value

No parameters are required, though not specifying anything is boring.

filter accepts "alpha", "numeric", "alphanumeric" and is a prefilter to the string. For example, the string "a1b2-c3c4" would be processed as the following with the different filters:

• none: "a1b2-c3d4"
• alpha: "abcd"
• numeric: "1234"
• alphanumeric: "a1b2c3d4"

The filtered string would *then* be applied to the mask. The mask entities are as follows:

• _ character unchanged
• 0 character is unchanged for numerics and forced to zero for all others
• 9 character is unchanged for numerics and forced to empty for all others
• a character is forced to lower case, all others are left as is
• A character is forced to upper case, all others are left as is
• b character is forced to lower case, numerics are forces to empty
• B character is forced to upper case, numerics are forces to empty
• \ following character is literal

Usage:

&lt;cf_filtermask value="123abc" mask="___ ___" <br>result="license_plate"&gt;
returns: 123 abc

&lt;cf_filtermask value="ab 1sf 2 sd 3 s 45" mask="\_0+\0b999999" <br>filter="numeric"&gt;
returns: _1+0345

<cf_filtermask value="APPL9E" mask="Bbbbbb \B">
returns: Apple B

The last example is why I made it in the first place.

<cfsilent>
<cfparam name="attributes.value" default="">
<cfparam name="attributes.result" default="out">
<cfparam name="attributes.mask" default="">
<cfparam name="attributes.filter" default="">

<cfset mask = attributes.mask>
<cfset t_value = attributes.value>

<cfif attributes.filter IS "numeric">
  <cfset t_value = REReplace(t_value, "[^[:digit:]]", "", "ALL")>
</cfif>

<cfif attributes.filter IS "alpha">
  <cfset t_value = REReplace(t_value, "[^[:alpha:]]", "", "ALL")>
</cfif>

<cfif attributes.filter IS "alphanumeric">
  <cfset t_value = REReplace(t_value, "[^[:alnum:]]", "", "ALL")>
</cfif>

<cfset value = "">
<cfset pos = "1">
<cfset literal = "0">
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#Len(mask)#">
  <cfset character = Mid(mask, i, 1)>
  <cfif literal>
    <cfset value = value & character>
    <cfset literal = "0">
  <cfelse>
    <cfif Len(t_value) GTE pos>
      <cfset char_at_pos = Mid(t_value, pos, 1)>
    <cfelse>
      <cfset char_at_pos = "">
    </cfif>
    <cfif character IS "9">
      <cfif isNumeric(char_at_pos)>
        <cfset value = value & Val(char_at_pos)>
      </cfif>
      <cfset pos = pos + "1">
    <cfelseif character IS "0">
      <cfset value = value & Val(char_at_pos)>
      <cfset pos = pos + "1">
    <cfelseif character IS "_">
      <cfset value = value & char_at_pos>
      <cfset pos = pos + "1">
    <cfelseif Find("A", character)>
      <cfset value = value & UCase(char_at_pos)>
      <cfset pos = pos + "1">
    <cfelseif Find("a", character)>
      <cfset value = value & LCase(char_at_pos)>
      <cfset pos = pos + "1">
    <cfelseif Find("b", character)>
      <cfif NOT isNumeric(char_at_pos)>
        <cfset value = value & LCase(char_at_pos)>
      </cfif>
      <cfset pos = pos + "1">
    <cfelseif Find("B", character)>
      <cfif NOT isNumeric(char_at_pos)>
        <cfset value = value & UCase(char_at_pos)>
      </cfif>
      <cfset pos = pos + "1">
    <cfelseif Find("\", character)>
      <cfset literal = "1">
    <cfelse>
      <cfset value = value & character>
    </cfif>
  </cfif> <!--- if literal --->
</cfloop>

<cfset t = SetVariable("caller.#attributes.result#", value)>
</cfsilent>