PROGRESS BAR!!!!

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?

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

Code:

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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

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

I was searching through my files and the results:

Code:

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'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.

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OR:

Code:

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'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

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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.

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.