merge.md

Merge

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 <first> <second> <new column> '<seperator>'

• The <first> and <second> column 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 <new-column> 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 '---'

would result 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"
}