Get Text

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May 25th, 2000, 01:31 AM
wasiq

how can i get the text of any object my mouse is over, like buttons, combo boxes, text boxes, and list items.
May 25th, 2000, 03:39 AM
kedaman

Your own or other apps?
May 26th, 2000, 04:18 PM
wasiq

other programs
May 26th, 2000, 06:39 PM
kedaman

That's a bit hard to do, you need to use a lot of api, because each control have different ways in showing it's text, basically getwindowtext. To know which window is att toplevel at that point of screen you need to enumerate all windows, and then enumerate all childwindows and then compare the rects of them (getwindowrect) for the last window that is at top in the enumeration, with the cursorposition (getcursorpos) and you have the right wnd. for getting the text, i'm not sure if you can do that with all controls, but you could try.
May 27th, 2000, 04:33 PM
wasiq

i just want to know how can we get the text from all the controls, i can do the rest myself.
May 27th, 2000, 07:06 PM
kedaman

That's as i said hard but there's another way. You can get the DC of the desktopwindow and then copy the area your mouse is over with bitblt. and you will have a small box containing the text (and the background to it), i know thats probably not what you want, am i right?
May 28th, 2000, 02:05 AM
wasiq

but thats not what i want, any other ideas?
May 28th, 2000, 02:27 AM
Yonatan

Kedaman, that would work, but what about this?

More of my module-loving code:

Code:

Option Explicit Declare Function GetCursorPos Lib "user32" (lpPoint As POINTAPI) As Long Declare Function WindowFromPoint Lib "user32" (ByVal xPoint As Long, ByVal yPoint As Long) As Long Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal cch As Long) As Long Declare Function GetWindowTextLength Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextLengthA" (ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long Type POINTAPI x As Long y As Long End Type Function GetTextFromCursorPosition() As String Dim sBuffer As String, lBufferSize As Long, hWndThingie As Long, ptCursorPos As POINTAPI, lPos As Long Call GetCursorPos(ptCursorPos) hWndThingie = WindowFromPoint(ptCursorPos.x, ptCursorPos.y) ' Now, hWndThingie is the hWnd of the window where the mouse cursor is. lBufferSize = GetWindowTextLength(hWndThingie) + 1 sBuffer = String(lBufferSize, vbNullChar) Call GetWindowText(hWndThingie, sBuffer, lBufferSize) ' Now, to trim the null(s)! lPos = InStr(sBuffer, vbNullChar) If lPos > 0 Then sBuffer = Left(sBuffer, lPos - 1) ' Return the text. GetTextFromCursorPosition = sBuffer End Function

Then... Whenever... Use this:

Call MsgBox("Why are you pointing at a TextBox/Window/Whatever whose caption/text/whatever is " & GetTextFromCursorPosition & "?")
May 28th, 2000, 02:36 AM
kedaman

Wow! Yonatan, you really deserves to be Guru! Windowfrompoint, i didn't know that. Thanks!

Also, i'm a module lover ;)

[Edited by kedaman on 05-28-2000 at 10:37 PM]
May 28th, 2000, 09:09 PM
wasiq

i tried that too, but it only gets the text from text boxes. any other ideas.
May 28th, 2000, 10:02 PM
kedaman

Well listboxes and other controls that don't work with getwindowtext just have the text stored internally, You could try to get the DC instead and somehow extract the text from there by comparing it to different fonts in different size, but i think that's somewhat too hardcore
May 28th, 2000, 11:53 PM
Yonatan

This should be a little check program... Not an OCR one. (Maybe)

Extracting the text from graphics is OCR (Optical Character Recognition). It's a little too advanced for something like getting the text from ListBoxes. I haven't tested my code, but I think everything you wanted (except ListBoxes) works with the code I gave you.

Here is some code that will identify whether it's a ListBox or not. If it is, it will get the text of the currently selected item there. If it isn't, it will run the GetWindowText code I gave you earlier.

Try this code in a module (I haven't tested it, but it should work):

Code:

Option Explicit Declare Function GetCursorPos Lib "user32" (lpPoint As POINTAPI) As Long Declare Function WindowFromPoint Lib "user32" (ByVal xPoint As Long, ByVal yPoint As Long) As Long Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal cch As Long) As Long Declare Function GetWindowTextLength Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextLengthA" (ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long Declare Function GetClassName Lib "user32" Alias "GetClassNameA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal nMaxCount As Long) As Long Public Const LB_GETCURSEL = &H188 Public Const LB_GETTEXT = &H189 Public Const LB_GETTEXTLEN = &H18A Public Const LB_ERR = (-1) Type POINTAPI x As Long y As Long End Type Sub TrimNulls(ByRef sString As String) Dim lPos As Long lPos = InStr(sString, vbNullChar) ' Scan the string for nulls. If lPos > 0 Then sString = Left(sString, lPos - 1) ' Found one? Trim! Only leave whatever is before it. End Sub Function GetTextFromListBox(ByVal hWndListBox As Long) As String Dim sBuffer As String, lBufferSize As Long, lCurSel As Long lCurSel = SendMessage(hWndListBox, LB_GETCURSEL, 0, ByVal 0) ' Get the current selection index. If lCurSel = LB_ERR Then Exit Function ' No selection? Return an empty string. lBufferSize = SendMessage(hWndListBox, LB_GETTEXTLEN, lCurSel, ByVal 0) + 1 ' Get length + null place. sBuffer = String(lBufferSize, vbNullChar) ' Reserve the correct amount of places. Call SendMessage(hWndListBox, LB_GETTEXT, lCurSel, ByVal sBuffer) ' Get the text followed by a bunch of nulls. Call TrimNulls(sBuffer) ' Trim all the nulls! GetTextFromListBox = sBuffer End Function Function GetTextFromCursorPosition() As String Dim sBuffer As String, lBufferSize As Long, hWndThingie As Long, ptCursorPos As POINTAPI ' First we get the hWnd of the thingie where the cursor is. Call GetCursorPos(ptCursorPos) hWndThingie = WindowFromPoint(ptCursorPos.x, ptCursorPos.y) ' Now, hWndThingie is the hWnd of the window where the mouse cursor is. ' We need to check if it's a ListBox or not. sBuffer = String(255, vbNullChar) ' Reserve 255 places. Call GetClassName(hWndThingie, sBuffer, 255) ' Get the ClassName followed by a bunch of nulls. Call TrimNulls(sBuffer) ' Trim all the nulls! ' If you know any ListBox ClassNames other than "ListBox" and "ThunderListBox", add them! If (sBuffer = "ListBox") Or (sBuffer = "ThunderListBox") Then GetTextFromCursorPosition = GetTextFromListBox(hWndThingie) Exit Function End If ' If it's not a ListBox... lBufferSize = GetWindowTextLength(hWndThingie) + 1 ' Get length + null place. sBuffer = String(lBufferSize, vbNullChar) ' Reserve the correct amount of places. Call GetWindowText(hWndThingie, sBuffer, lBufferSize) ' Get the text followed by a bunch of nulls. Call TrimNulls(sString) ' Trim all the nulls! GetTextFromCursorPosition = sBuffer End Function

Same syntax as before, except now it works with ListBoxes.

If you want to get all the text of all the items in a ComboBox or a ListBox, then post a reply and tell me about it.
May 29th, 2000, 01:01 AM
REM

May be of interest...

Just thought this link might interest you. It links to
some code for getting info on windows when you mouseover them. Check it out :D

http://www.planet-source-code.com/vb...txtCodeId=5647

Laterz

REM
May 29th, 2000, 03:05 PM
wasiq

i sure would love to have a code to get the caption from list boxes and combo boxes. thanks for all the help.
May 29th, 2000, 05:26 PM
Judd

Kedaman posts = 1373: Fanatic member

Yonatan posts = 1142: Guru

Je ne comprends pas.

?????

DAn
May 29th, 2000, 05:38 PM
kedaman

Hehe, go complain about that to John. what does "Je ne comprends pas." mean?

I'll test your code later Yonatan.
May 29th, 2000, 05:41 PM
Judd

Its French for 'I don't understand'

(no I'm not French, or Canadian)

Dan