Can't quite describe this one...

[homerj]

Hi,

Using VB6 and having a bit of an annoying problem, the following code: -

Sub strFunction()

Dim str As String
Dim Name As String

Name = "Mark"

str = "Hello <Name> has selected <Name> to review them"
str = Replace(str, "<", """ & ")
str = Replace(str, ">", " & """)
str = """" & str & """"

Debug.Print str

End Sub

Produces the following output : -

"Hello " & Name & " has selected " & Name & " to review them"

This is correct except that & Name & should be Mark and it shoudl look like this : -

"Hello Mark has selected Mark to review them"

When you hard code "Hello " & Name & " has selected " & Name & " to review them" in it works perfectly, any ideas?

Kind regards,

Homer

[timeshifter]

Try hard-coding it straight in. It hasn't failed for me!

Sub CreateString()
 
   Dim message, name As String
 
   name=InputBox ("Enter Your Name:", , "Welcome!") ' second quotes is just the title
 
   message="Hello " & name & " has selected " & name & " to review them."
 
   lblMessage=message
 
End Sub

It should accomplish the same thing that you are trying to do without all that "Replace" crap...

[si_the_geek]

str = Replace(str, "<Name>", Name)

[homerj]

Yep, you are both correct but it's not what we are looking for, the reason for all the replace options on the " <> " signs is so that the user can put a number of different things in the middle, like: -

<Forename>
<Surname>
<Age>

etc etc etc,

Too many to hard code directly, therefore by replacing just the <> signs with the " & it would overcome this problem, but it just doesn't seem to like it!

Any help is much appreciated, surely someone must have come across this before!

Thanks in advance,

Homer J

[ahara]

I don't know if this will help but, you could use a function:

Private Function getVar(p As String) As String
    Select Case p
        Case "<Name>"
	      getVar = theName

        'as many cases as you need


    End Select

End Function

theName = "Mark"
str = "Hello <Name> has selected <Name> to review them"
str = Replace(str, "<Name>", getVar("<Name>"))

variables would have to be form level - I know it's not exactly what you want but I don't think it is possible to convert literals to variables. Hope that helps

[si_the_geek]

There is no alternative to hard coding, just different methods of doing it (using an array may well be an option).

No matter what characters you add to a string it will always be just a string, you cannot convert it into code.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yeah, what is your ultimate objective? If you hardcode with a variable, you can have that variable show up, but if you are thinking that you can cause a different behavior after compilation by altering the string, you won't get it. What you wrote was a waste of time, but it wasn't clear what you ultimately wanted to have happen.

[homerj]

What we are looking for is quite simple.

A text box where a user can type in text and in addition they can put a code in that represents a number of fields within a database. Such as: -

<Name>
<Forename>

Now, what we want to programme is that anywhere in that text box a < or > appears we want to replace it with " & so that it will produce what I said above, quite simple really.

Are you all saying that this is not possible?

Homer

[szlamany]

We do something similar in our report writer - we have paragraphs that we store that have "{token}" embedded within.

We like {} over <> because they are less likely to occur in "real text".

I've ripped this out of a production program - and cleaned it up a bit to fit your example better. Please note that we declare i,j,k,x,y,z as longs in all our routines and s1,s2,s3,s4 and s5 as string - just to have handy access to temporary variables...

y = InStr(strPara, "{")
Do While y <> 0
    z = InStr(y, strPara, "}")
    s3 = Mid(strPara, y + 1, z - y - 1)
    If s3="NAME" Then
        s3 = strName
    End If
    strPara = Left(strPara, y - 1) + s3 + Mid(strPara, z + 1)
    y = InStr(y, strPara, "{")
Loop

[KayJay]

For user defined variable and/or function processing checlk out the MS Script Contol. It can run arbitary VBScript code entered during runtime.

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim Result As String
 
ScriptControl1.AddCode (Text1.Text)
Result = ScriptControl1.Run("UserDefinedFunction", "KayJay", 25)
 
MsgBox Result
    
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
Text1.Text = ("Function UserDefinedFunction(UserName, Age)" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
             "UserDefinedFunction = UserName & vbcrlf & Age" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
             "End Function")
End Sub

[BuggyProgrammer]

You could also have it call an object in your program. Just add a Class module, and put your (public) functions in there.

Dim cScript as class1
set cscript=new class1

msscript.addobject class1, "ObjectName"

then in the msscript you could access it like an object:
ObjectName.SayThis "hello"

[timeshifter]

You could always try something like this... Please forgive me if it's a little clumsy, I'm just giving you the code I know how to use.

Private Sub cmdNewUser_Click()
 
   Dim UserItem as String ' just to check what they want to change
   Dim UserPref as String ' to change what user wanted to change
 
   UserItem=InputBox ("Valid Items: name, age, sname", , "Choose Field:") ' second quotes is title, first quotes is where you tell them whats useable
 
   If lcase(UserItem)="name" Then
      ' what to change if user wants to change name
   If lcase(UserItem)="age" Then
      ' what to change if user wants to change age
   ' etc, etc...
   EndIf
 
   UserPref="User's name is " & name & ", user is " & age & " years old, and lives in " & location "." ' or something like that..
 
End Sub

In this case, just use UserPref as the full string to compile all the information at the end.