dynamic column parse, separation, and concatenation

[dm]

A database column that appears in my report must be parsed into 5
separate fields if a special character is present. There is no way to
know in advance which rows contain the special character.

Using the left, mid and pos functions, I have been able to obtain 5
separate portions of the original column (using either text fields or
computed fields). The 5 substrings must be arranged in a certain order
if the special character is present. The problem is putting the
strings back together again so they appear as a single string on the
report without embedded spaces.

If anyone has successfully accomplished this type of operation, can
you explain how it worked best? I have tried using each computed
field's "X" and "WIDTH" properties to concatenate the fields together
with some success but the code seems bulky. I also tried "slide left"
option but it does not seem to work correctly.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.