[frumple]

Ok, I did find I way to do it intrinsically, but it seemed to run slow as well as not be able to handle the cases where we were searching for a string made up of repeated characters very well. So... I went with a workaround requires the input of the number of things that make up the list instead of figuring it out from the string itself since these strings will be generated with things like tagname[], or foreach loops.

Here is what I have for parsing the list

~ this procedure is used to generate a formatted list with and/or at the end 
~ from an inputted delimited string

~ 
~ Variables
~
~ v_string is our input string which is changed by this procedure
~ v_delim is out list delimiter, unless specified we assume ", "
~ v_andor is the final conjuction used, we assume "and" if not specified
~ v_number is the number of things in our list
~

var v_string as string
var v_delim as string
var v_number as number
var v_andor as string

~ 
~ Internal variables
~
~ x_len - length of v_string
~ x_lastpos - last position of delimiter
~ x_frontend - after we split the string, this is the front piece
~ x_backend - after we split the string, this is the back piece
~

var x_len as number
var x_lastpos as number
var x_frontend as string
var x_backend as string

~ if we do not have a string, get out
doneif (empty(v_string) <> 0)
~ also if v_number is less than 2, get out
doneif (v_number < 2)

~ set defaults
if (empty(v_delim) <> 0) then
   v_delim = ", "
  endif
if (empty(v_andor) <> 0) then
   v_andor = "and"
   endif

~ set length and position variables
x_len = length(v_string)
x_lastpos = lastpos(v_string,v_delim)

~ split our string
x_frontend = left(v_string,x_lastpos)
x_backend = right(v_string,x_len - x_lastpos - length(v_delim))

if (v_number = 2) then
  v_string = x_frontend & " " & v_andor & " " & x_backend
elseif (v_number > 2) then
  v_string = x_frontend & ", " & v_andor & " " & x_backend
  endif

If you are interested here is what I had for my initial attempt at finding and counting substrings. Again, it runs slow and has some issues with more complex search cases.

~ this procedure counts now many times a given substring appears in a given string

~
~ VARIABLES
~
~ v_string is our string we are searching through
~ v_search is our substring
~ v_count is how many times v_search appears in v_string
~ 

var v_string as string
var v_search as string
var v_count as number

~ if we don't have either, get out
doneif (empty(v_string) <> 0)
doneif (empty(v_search) <> 0)

~
~ ALGORITHM
~
~ String S is of length n
~ Search string s is of length m
~ current search string C(i) is a piece of S starting at position i of length m 
~ we search left to right taking C piecewise. 
~ if we match we increment the count, if not take next search string which is C(i+m+1)
~  this means that last possible position we could have for i is n-m. If we do not 
~ match we shift by 1

var x_n as number
var x_m as number
var x_C as string
var x_endPos as number
var x_ii as number

x_n = length(v_string)
x_m = length(v_search)
~ out search string cannot be greater than our starting string
doneif (x_m > x_n)

x_endPos = x_n - x_m

while (x_ii <= x_endPos)
  x_C = mid(v_string,x_ii,x_m)

debug "pos: " & x_ii & " - " & x_C

  if (compare(x_C,v_search) = 0) then
    v_count += 1
    x_ii += x_m
  else
    x_ii += 1
    endif
  
  loop