/* Combining string pattern and parsing into words */
name=' John Q. Public'
parse var name fn init '.' ln /* Assigns: fn='John' */
/* init=' Q' */
/* ln=' Public' */
John had three leading blanks. All are removed because parsing into words removes leading and trailing blanks except from the last variable.
Q has six leading blanks. Parsing removes one word-separator blank and keeps the rest because init is the last variable in that section of the template.
/* Combining positional patterns with parsing into words */
string='R E X X'
parse var string var1 var2 4 var3 6 var4 /* Assigns: var1='R' */
/* var2='E' */
/* var3=' X' */
/* var4=' X' */