[RESOLVED] How to separate content of a TextBox?!

[GlowingVB]

Howdy guys ...

How can I separate content of a textbox ?! For e.g. I have a textbox which contains both alphabetical and numeric text in it , something like this :

TextBox.Text="vbfourms2014"

I want to learn how to separate any part of the text. For e.g. I want to separate vb and forums and 2014.

Thanks in advance

[Daniel Duta]

Using the '&' operator ? TextBox.Text="vb " & "fourms " & "2014"

[SamOscarBrown]

Doesn't want to know how to CREATE a textbox with "vbfourms2014" (sic)
But rather if he HAS that, he wants to separate into (three) sections.
Glowing....what you are asking is not what you are asking. :-)
if the ONLY thing in textbox.text is "vbfourms2014", then you can simply say:

Dim firstSection as string
Dim secSection as string
Dim thirdSection as string
firstSection = Mid(textbox.text,1,2)
secSection = Mid(textbox.text,3,6)
thirdSection = Mid(textbox.text,7,4)

but what I suspect is that you want to split SOME text in the textbox. YOu are going to have to be a LOT more specific what you want separated. How would the computer know if you want the first 2 characters (like 'vb'), or maybe the first 3 characters (like 'vb6' in a string of 'vb6forums2014').
See what I mean....?

[georgekar]

Check in the codebase M2000 interpreter. It is a list processing monster. You can found functions: islabel isnumber isstring and more advance isexp isstrexp for aritmetic, logic and string operations. Code is free and open.

[DataMiser]

Well the first thing you need to do is come up with a rule as to how it should be split up.

Your example has no separators and you want to not only split out the number but also part of the text.
This would be simple if you always want the first 2 characters, the last 4 and those in between but if this is not the case then you must do something different.
So again first step is to determine the rule that must be used to split the data only then can you come up with code that will work on different strings.

[SamOscarBrown]

Btwis. :-)

[georgekar]

GlowingVB,
Suppose you know that "forums" is inside the string to examine. An Instr function give you the position 0 if "forums" not exist or a positive number for position. So if a rule says that if a forums exist in string then split that string to a string before and to another string after "forums". Can you make the code for that problem?

[Nightwalker83]

but what I suspect is that you want to split SOME text in the textbox. YOu are going to have to be a LOT more specific what you want separated. How would the computer know if you want the first 2 characters (like 'vb'), or maybe the first 3 characters (like 'vb6' in a string of 'vb6forums2014').
See what I mean....?

How about something such as

Dim firstSection As String
Dim secSection As String
Dim thirdSection As String
Dim pos As Integer
pos = Len(TextBox.Text)
firstSection = Mid(TextBox.Text, 1, pos)
pos = Len(TextBox.Text)
secSection = Mid(TextBox.Text, pos + 1, pos)
pos = Len(TextBox.Text)
thirdSection = Mid(TextBox.Text, pos + 1, pos)
Text2.Text = firstSection & " " & secSection & " " & thirdSection

[GlowingVB]

Thanks for your answers ...

It's better to say that the content of textbox might be anything! For example , You have strange code like : adfjkq2389rfjaiosdjg883 !!!!

Now you want to use any part of the code for different purposes (for e.g.) .

I want the program to get , for example , letter k to number 8 (Like kq2389rfjaiosdjg8) and separate it from other parts of content.

[GlowingVB]

Doesn't want to know how to CREATE a textbox with "vbfourms2014" (sic)
But rather if he HAS that, he wants to separate into (three) sections.
Glowing....what you are asking is not what you are asking. :-)
if the ONLY thing in textbox.text is "vbfourms2014", then you can simply say:

Dim firstSection as string
Dim secSection as string
Dim thirdSection as string
firstSection = Mid(textbox.text,1,2)
secSection = Mid(textbox.text,3,6)
thirdSection = Mid(textbox.text,7,4)

but what I suspect is that you want to split SOME text in the textbox. YOu are going to have to be a LOT more specific what you want separated. How would the computer know if you want the first 2 characters (like 'vb'), or maybe the first 3 characters (like 'vb6' in a string of 'vb6forums2014').
See what I mean....?

This seems to work ... . I try it ASAP

[georgekar]

Think about a function that you put a string and return a pattern string like "NSSN" number string string number. This function give the idea of what your input string is and then you can do what you want.

[Schmidt]

One could tackle such things with a generic Split-Function, which separates the
numeric parts and the TextParts.

The Form-Code below shows a simple approach (which currently will parse out only Integer-snippets,
but could be enhanced, to understand also Fractional numbers using the same principle...

Option Explicit

Private Sub Form_Load()
Dim Part
  For Each Part In NumericSplit("abc123xyz456???")
    Debug.Print Part, TypeName(Part)
  Next
End Sub

Function NumericSplit(S As String) 'state-machine like parsing of numeric and txt-parts
Dim i As Long, j As Long, B() As Byte, WC As Long, IsNum As Boolean, IsTxt As Boolean, V()
  B = S
  For i = 0 To UBound(B) Step 2
    WC = B(i) + B(i + 1) * 256
    Select Case WC
      Case 48 To 57: If Not IsNum Then IsNum = True: IsTxt = False: ReDim Preserve V(j): j = j + 1
      Case Else:     If Not IsTxt Then IsTxt = True: IsNum = False: ReDim Preserve V(j): j = j + 1
    End Select
    If IsNum Then V(j - 1) = V(j - 1) * 10 + WC - 48 Else V(j - 1) = V(j - 1) & ChrW$(WC)
  Next i
  NumericSplit = V
End Function

Olaf

[georgekar]

Nice. But a pattern export first is more usefull. So maybe you can alter your function to give actual data or qualification pattern.

[Schmidt]

Nice. But a pattern export first is more usefull. So maybe you can alter your function to give actual data or qualification pattern.

As it is currently, one wouldn't really need to think about giving any patterns (or their lenght),
since the numeric and string-parts will be parsed out with either length in alternating order
(wichever part-type - numeric or text comes first).

Relatively easy from there, to write ones own "special pattern-match-routines" directly -
since one can test, which part comes first in the returned Variant-Array, by simply using
the VarType Function.

A simple generic pattern-match function is easily possible - without changing the
NumericSplit-Function (which can remain "as is", usable on its own).

Example into a Form:

Option Explicit
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
Dim Parts(): Parts = NumericSplit("abc123xyz")

  'this will not work, because we have only 3 parts, and the pattern wants 4
  If CheckPatternMatchFor(Parts, "TNTN") Then EnumerateParts Parts
  
  'this will not work, because although the pattern has 3 parts, the order is wrong
  If CheckPatternMatchFor(Parts, "NTN") Then EnumerateParts Parts
  
  'this will work, since the pattern is TNT and matches with "abc123xyz"
  If CheckPatternMatchFor(Parts, "TNT") Then EnumerateParts Parts
End Sub
 
Sub EnumerateParts(Parts())
Dim i As Long
  For i = 0 To UBound(Parts): Debug.Print Parts(i), TypeName(Parts(i)): Next
End Sub

Function CheckPatternMatchFor(Parts(), Optional Pattern As String = "TNT") As Boolean
  If Len(Pattern) = UBound(Parts) + 1 And _
    (VarType(Parts(0)) = vbString And Left$(UCase$(Pattern), 1) = "T") Or _
    (VarType(Parts(0)) <> vbString And Left$(UCase$(Pattern), 1) = "N") Then
    CheckPatternMatchFor = True
  Else
    Debug.Print "The " & UBound(Parts) + 1 & " parts " & Join(Parts, "|") & " don't match the " & Pattern & "-Pattern"
  End If
End Function
 
Function NumericSplit(S As String)
Dim i As Long, j As Long, B() As Byte, WC As Long, IsNum As Boolean, IsTxt As Boolean, V()
  B = S
  For i = 0 To UBound(B) Step 2
    WC = B(i) + B(i + 1) * 256
    Select Case WC
      Case 48 To 57: If Not IsNum Then IsNum = True: IsTxt = False: ReDim Preserve V(j): j = j + 1
      Case Else:     If Not IsTxt Then IsTxt = True: IsNum = False: ReDim Preserve V(j): j = j + 1
    End Select
    If IsNum Then V(j - 1) = V(j - 1) * 10 + WC - 48 Else V(j - 1) = V(j - 1) & ChrW$(WC)
  Next i
  NumericSplit = V
End Function

Olaf

[georgekar]

Numbers are not only digits. We have sign so a space maybe is a plus sign, and we have decimal point, and in some cases we have e with sign and exponetial value. So you can have 5 numbers one by one and you can parse them. The idea of numbers only with digits displayed, maybe is true for production codes or marks. And for that situation they hold specific position and width.
In a more universal approach in an textbox someone can iinput values with quality mark..we say 1200km, or we can have an action before: after 2 hr
For such complex inputs you can use a split function or better a function that parse without needed spaces or some delimiters, because each entity has specific rule to identify.

[SamOscarBrown]

'Probably' should just wait until OP comes back to the Thread. Doubt he/she is very well versed in VB6, and a lot of these discussions are more than likely way over OP's head. (Just guessing.) (Yesm, many ways to split text.....but first really need to know WHAT text, and how it is desired to be split.

[DataMiser]

Thanks for your answers ...

It's better to say that the content of textbox might be anything! For example , You have strange code like : adfjkq2389rfjaiosdjg883 !!!!

Now you want to use any part of the code for different purposes (for e.g.) .

I want the program to get , for example , letter k to number 8 (Like kq2389rfjaiosdjg8) and separate it from other parts of content.

This case is completely different from the first case as here you are not separating the numbers from the text

So once again if you want to parse out a string you need some kind of rule that you will go by. It is possible to parse out a string in many different ways but if you want some code that can parse out different strings then there has to be a rule that will be used. What worked on the first example will not work on the second and what works on the second will not work on the first.

Take some time to think about what it is you really want to do, what the content of the different strings may be and how you want them parsed and only then can you come up with suitable code to do what you want to do.

[GlowingVB]

Common guys! To tell you frankly , you are making a mountain out of a molehill! What i asked is so simple to understand , but i don't know why you are putting your finger on the format of content to see whether it is number or ... ! What "SamOscarBrown" suggested works well without any dependency to the content format.

Anyway , Thanks a million for sharing ideas. See you soon ...

[DataMiser]

Yes the method that Sam showed will work just fine to parse characters from those specific positions
It will not work on your second example though unless you change the numbers in the code.

So to make it work on strings that are not of the same length and you are not pulling from the same place it will not do it.

In any case as I said you have to have some rule in place be it the first 3 characters, the next 4, the last 5, up to a comma or a digit or whatever the case may be.

As for what you asked being simple to understand to you it may have been but it really is not as clear as you might think and the comment about needing a rule to parse is true in any case

[georgekar]

GlowingVB,
A proper programming method to apply someone must have three parts: knowing what is valid, expected the exceptions, and finally implement a feedback in code. The new programmer do all of this things without a single line of code. Because in his thought, all data he provide are valid, an error from program consider it as a bug or fault of the language or something but no his mistake or misunderstood, and if the output is what was expected to be, then that feedback is o.k. for him.
Here the objective is only to find someone the asking method. But in my opinion that method must have a validation routine. There is no code to expect anything, even a language which can run several thousands different programs for input has a validation section of what can load and what not.
Simple thoughts....create complicated programs;

[GlowingVB]

GlowingVB,
A proper programming method to apply someone must have three parts: knowing what is valid, expected the exceptions, and finally implement a feedback in code. The new programmer do all of this things without a single line of code. Because in his thought, all data he provide are valid, an error from program consider it as a bug or fault of the language or something but no his mistake or misunderstood, and if the output is what was expected to be, then that feedback is o.k. for him.
Here the objective is only to find someone the asking method. But in my opinion that method must have a validation routine. There is no code to expect anything, even a language which can run several thousands different programs for input has a validation section of what can load and what not.
Simple thoughts....create complicated programs;

I do agree with this sentence : "Simple thoughts....create complicated programs" , but sometimes humans ditch themselves and choose the hardest way to get an simple answer! I know that if someone wants to ask a question and get a reasonable answer , he should provide all the necessary info and consider all the aspects , but how could i ask this question in apparently understandable way ?!

After all , I'm not expert at programming ; not a great human either! So I need to be all ear to some guys like you to learn more ...

Yours sincerely

[SamOscarBrown]

Well, your first post only gives ONE example of a text you wanted to split. If that is the ONLY text you wanted to divide into three parts, you said it well enough, except adding that it IS the onlly text you want to split.

But as you continue to learn to code, you will see there are MANY ways to divide up strings, and in doing so, a logical thought process must be used. You should be anticipating that a user of your application could type in ANYTHING and then could want to split it ANY way.

So, a better approach could have been:

"I have a text box that contains twelve characters. I want to split it into three parts: part 1 is the first two characters, part 2 is the next 6 characters, and part 3 is the last four characters. (I have the textbox set to a limit of 12, and I have code that won't let any splitting be done until there is 12 characters entered.). How do I do this?"

That way, you would not have gotten all those responses about a VERY GOOD function, the Split() function. You would probable have only gotten what I posted.

Don't worry, you will get better if you keep studying and visiting this forum.

[GlowingVB]

Well, your first post only gives ONE example of a text you wanted to split. If that is the ONLY text you wanted to divide into three parts, you said it well enough, except adding that it IS the onlly text you want to split.

But as you continue to learn to code, you will see there are MANY ways to divide up strings, and in doing so, a logical thought process must be used. You should be anticipating that a user of your application could type in ANYTHING and then could want to split it ANY way.

So, a better approach could have been:



That way, you would not have gotten all those responses about a VERY GOOD function, the Split() function. You would probable have only gotten what I posted.

Don't worry, you will get better if you keep studying and visiting this forum.

Of course I can get better with others' guidance. I know there are many ways to do the same thing , but there is no any need to know all the ways ! Everybody could suggest what you generally did to me as a really good way.If I want to go to details , then i can not expand and use my acquired knowledge in other cases. Maybe ones i have a textbox not with limitation of 12 (for e.g.) or ... . So I'm sure that a person with non-special logic agree that learning something's rule basically is better than learning an exception of it.
Have Fun!