`stredit(X;P;N;Y)`

Returns a given string, with a specified number of characters starting at a certain position replaced by a given substring.

Syntax

stredit(X;P;N;Y)
bstredit(X;P;N;Y)

Argument	Type	Description
`X`	text	The string on which to apply the function A scalar value or the name of a column
`P`	integer	An index corresponding to a particular position in `X` The index `P` is 1-based (i.e., the first character has position 1). A negative position counts back from the end of the string (i.e., `P`=`-1` refers to the last character). `P`=`0` refers to the position after the last character of the string `X`. If `P` is N/A, it is treated as 1.
`N`	integer	The number of characters to replace in `X` `N`=`-1` refers to as many characters as necessary to reach the end of the string. If `N` is N/A, it is treated as 0.
`Y`	text	`Y` is the substring to be replaced in `X`. A scalar value or the name of a column

Returns the text value corresponding to the string X with the N characters beginning at position P replaced with the string Y.

If X is N/A, the result is Y. If Y is N/A, the effect is to delete N characters from X (i.e., replace them with the empty string).

Note: The function will insert or delete characters in X as necessary.


`value`	`position`	`number`	`newstring`	`stredit(value;position;number;newstring)`
'testing'	2	1	'oa'	'toasting'
'testing'	-3	-1	'er	'tester'
'testing'	1	2	''	'sting'
'testing'	-3	-1	''	'test'
'testing'	1	0	'con'	'contesting'

stredit is Unicode (UTF-8) compliant and will work with Unicode or plain ASCII text fields.
If passed a string argument that is not legal Unicode, it will by default signal an error (configurable as a user preference).
A corresponding function bstredit can be used with non-Unicode strings (e.g., binary or legacy encodings).