How to include OS command with Substitute function in Openedge?

Question

Im trying to create an PDF via OS-Command in OpenEdge but I hit an error when I run the script.

*Error : The command "C: \ Program" is either misspelled or could not be found

It works perfectly :

os-command (' "C:\Program Files (x86)\wkhtmltopdf\wkhtmltopdf.exe" "V:\V11\WEB\PDF\Name_01.03.2021_14.09.30_da.html" "V:\V11\WEB\PDF\Name_01.03.2021_14.09.30_da.pdf" ').

However, when I Include the command in script and run it then I encounter an error.

This one doesnt work :

define variable cmdcommand as char no-undo. cmdcommand = SUBSTITUTE (' "C:\Program Files (x86)\wkhtmltopdf\wkhtmltopdf.exe"
"V:\V11\WEB\PDF\Name_&1_&2_&3.html"
"V:\V11\WEB\PDF\Name_&1_&2_&3.pdf" ', "01.03.2021", "14.09.30", "da"). os-command value(cmdcommand).

What did I miss here? Can anyone help?

Answer 1

In your second sample, there's no value in using SUBSTITUTE, as your're not using place holders (&1, &2, ...). What you're doing is basically a straight forward string assignment.

The resulting string looks like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\wkhtmltopdf\wkhtmltopdf.exe""V:\V11\WEB\PDF\Name_01.03.2021_14.09.30_da.html""V:\V11\WEB\PDF\Name_01.03.2021_14.09.30_da.pdf"

• there's an extra space at the beginning
• there's no space between the closing quote of the path to your exe and the first argument.

This here works for me:

define variable cmdcommand as char no-undo.

cmdcommand = SUBSTITUTE ('"c:\Program Files (x86)\WinMerge\winmergeu.exe" &1 &2',
                          "c:\temp\1.txt",
                          "c:\temp\2.txt").

OS-COMMAND silent value(cmdcommand).

Due to the use of the SUBSTITUTE function with place holders, this gives me a clean command with a space between the exe path and the first argument.

It works with or without the SILENT option.