PROGRESS BAR!!!!

[Zej]

How do I use the progress bar to measure how long it will take for to do something.

for example, I am making a program that encrypts text, but it takes longer for larger files, so i want to display a progress bar. how do i do it?

[Aaron Young]

You don't neccessarily need to use the Progressbar, you can achieve the same effect with a picturebox, i.e.

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim iFile As Integer
    Dim sFile As String
    Dim nChar As Long
    
    iFile = FreeFile
    Open "D:\LargeFile.txt" For Binary Access Read As iFile
    sFile = Space(LOF(iFile))
    Get #iFile, , sFile
    Close iFile
    
    nChar = 1
    While nChar <= Len(sFile)
        'Do whatever with each character of the file
        nChar = nChar + 1
        If nChar Mod 10 = 0 Or nChar = Len(sFile) Then
            Picture1.Line (0, 0)-((Picture1.ScaleWidth / Len(sFile)) * nChar, Picture1.ScaleHeight), vbBlue, BF
        End If
    Wend
End Sub

You can vary the update period to suit your own needs.

I was searching through my files and the results:

'Using the Progress Bar to measure action:

ProgressBar1.Max=1000        
'Then in a later loop where I am displaying progress as I move through a file, my code says:

ProgressBar1.Value=X mod 1000        
'X is a count of records read from a file, which I have no way of knowing the number of records beforehand. This way, using MOD,  I never have an out of range error in setting the progress bar value.  Once the number of records is over 1000, then using MOD, the progressbar is reset to 0.

OR:

'strSource As String (String To work with)
'Optional strKey As String = "jhGd&34" (The key)
'EncDecFile:
'strSource As String (full path of file To work with)
'Optional bolShowProgress As Boolean = False (self-Explanatory)
'Optional objProgress As ProgressBar (The actual Prog.Bar)

Public Function EncDecString(strSource As String, Optional strKey As String = "jhGd&34") As String
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim intAscSource As Integer
    Dim strTempEncDec As String
    Dim strSeed As String
    Dim intkey As Integer
    'generates Seed for the randomize event 
    '     through Ascii codes of each of the chara
    '     cters of the key


    For i = 1 To Len(strKey)
        strSeed = strSeed & Asc(Mid(strKey, i, 1))
    Next i
    Rnd -1'Because i want To work With the same random table
    Randomize CDbl(strSeed)


    For i = 1 To Len(strSource)
        intkey = Int(256 * Rnd) 'generates an Integer (0-255)
        intAscSource = Asc(Mid(strSource, i, 1))
        strTempEncDec = strTempEncDec & Chr(intAscSource Xor intkey) ' The actual encryption takes place here
    Next i
    EncDecString = strTempEncDec
End Function
'***************************************
'     *******************'


Public Sub EncDecFile(strSource As String, Optional bolShowProgress As Boolean = False, Optional objProgress As ProgressBar)
    Dim iFile As Integer
    Dim StrStream As String * 100
    Dim lngSteps As Long
    Dim i As Long
    iFile = FreeFile()
    Open strSource For Binary As iFile
    'Help me on this one, please.
    'How can i avoid this and work on the en
    '     tire file?
    'I had difficulty trying to deal with th
    '     e Seek statement.
    'If you notice, i'm working on 100 bytes
    '     segments and discarding the last <=99
    '     bytes.
    lngSteps = Int(LOF(iFile) / 100)
    'inicializes the progress bar.


    If bolShowProgress Then
        objProgress.Min = 0
        objProgress.Max = lngSteps
        objProgress.Value = 0
    End If


    For i = 1 To lngSteps
        Get iFile, i, StrStream
        StrStream = EncDecString(StrStream) 'calls the Function above where the encryption takes place.
        Put iFile, i, StrStream


        If bolShowProgress Then 'Updates the progress bar
            objProgress.Value = i
        End If
    Next i
    Close iFile
End Sub

You should use ARGradient as a Progressbar. It's much better than the standard Windows one. I'll see if I can find the site for you.

[shaba]

the progress bar is very simple to use. Just the max property to any arbitrary amount. 100 is a good number to start out with. Then just find a loop in your program that handles the bulk of the time-consuming calculations and increment the progressbar at th eend of each iteration of the loop. here, kinda like this:


progressbar1.max = 100

for x = 1 to 100
do this
do this
do this
progressbar1.value = x
next x

if the max iteration of your loop is greater than 100

for x = 1 to 2000
do this
do this
progressbar1.value = x mod 100
next x

shaheeb

But if he doesn't know how large the file is going to be, there is no fixed interval.