Hello comunity

I need a function or coding to check the following.
I need to create on my table article, on my field REF C(18), new codes for my production product.
this products are composed like this

01.nnnnnn-Q1
02.nnnnnn-Q2
Where 01 or 02 are the type of products
nnnnnn are numeric with lenght of six digits
and Q1 or Q2... is the version of my final product.

Then i need to build coding that make this approach.
1- find if "." (point) and "-" both exist on my field REF
2- if it is the first new article then "nnnnnn" the value must me increase by 1 , like 000001 and so on.

can someone could give a simple coding exemple to do that, because i dont know if i can use for exemple the VFP function:
text1 $ text2
Because i need to check if both "." (point) and "-" exist..

Many thanks,
Best regards
Luis Santos