# Scanning for non printable characters in a variable

**URL:** <https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/scanning-for-non-printable-characters-in-a-variable/78493>\
**Category:** Forum\
**Tags:** Adabas-Natural, Natural, Natural-on-Mainframes, Natural-on-Windows-Unix\
**Created:** [July 7, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/scanning-for-non-printable-characters-in-a-variable/78493 "2008-07-07T12:45:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![john\_db](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f04885/32.png) [@john\_db](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/john_db)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/scanning-for-non-printable-characters-in-a-variable/78493/1 "2008-07-07T12:45:51Z")

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Hello, posting in new subject as suggested.

Is it possible to scan for linefeed and/or carriage return (LF/CR)?

Orchestrator has read a Windows text file and placed its contents into a nat414 dynamic variable, then callnatted a nat414 subprogram. Could this subprogram scan the variable for a hex code (for example) that indicates an end of line?

Thanks

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**Author:** ![Steve\_Robinson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/steve_robinson/32/107_2.png) [@Steve\_Robinson](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Steve_Robinson)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/scanning-for-non-printable-characters-in-a-variable/78493/2 "2008-07-07T16:24:09Z")

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Hi John;

Yes, you can, for example, IF #A = SCAN H’0A’

You can also use Hex constants for EXAMINE and SEPARATE, which might be useful depending on what you must do with LF/CR if you find them.

steve

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 2:50pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/scanning-for-non-printable-characters-in-a-variable/78493/3 "2021-04-02T14:50:36Z")

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