bug in my [e2]ish autolinker code

I recently uncovered a sample of VBscript ASP that does the one thing I never learned about - advanced string handling.

This one I was able to understand enough to modify it to work with a system I am building for my website. The code now searches the text given it and turns any word with a "[" or a "]" around it [like this] into a hyperlink with the word as a value.

now as I don't fully understand the code I think I need to remove the leading [. Could someone talk me through what I need to do so as I can carry on learning and understanding this?

Obviously a value has to be gained from somewhere but I am currently concerned only with the function.

Code:

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<%
'***** BEGIN FUNCTIONS *****

Function LinkWords(strInput)
        Dim iCurrentLocation  ' The current position in the input string
        Dim iLinkStart        ' Beginning position of the current link
        Dim iLinkEnd          ' Ending position of the current link
        Dim strLinkText      ' Text being converted to a link
        Dim strOutput        ' Return string with the links in it

        ' Start at the first character in the string
        iCurrentLocation = 1

        ' Look for [ in the text from the current position to
        ' the end of the string.  If we find it then we start the
        ' linking process otherwise we're done because there are no
        ' more ['s in the string.
        Do While InStr(iCurrentLocation, strInput, "[", 1) <> 0
                ' Set the position of the beginning of the link
                iLinkStart = InStr(iCurrentLocation, strInput, "[", 1)
               
                ' Set the position of the end of the link.  ie Find ]
                iLinkEnd = InStr(iLinkStart, strInput, "]", 1)
               
                ' If we didn't find a ] then we link to the
                ' end of the string
                If iLinkEnd = 0 Then iLinkEnd = Len(strInput) + 1

                ' Take care of any punctuation we picked up
                Select Case Mid(strInput, iLinkEnd - 1, 1)
                        Case ".", "!", "?", "]"
                                iLinkEnd = iLinkEnd - 1
                End Select
               
                ' This adds to the output string all the non linked stuff
                ' up to the link we're curently processing.
                strOutput = strOutput & Mid(strInput, iCurrentLocation, iLinkStart - iCurrentLocation)

                ' Get the text we're linking and store it in a variable
                strLinkText = Mid(strInput, iLinkStart, iLinkEnd - iLinkStart)
               
                ' Build our link and append it to the output string
                strOutput = strOutput & "<A HREF=""" & "reader.asp?art=" & strLinkText & """>" & strLinkText & "</A>"

                ' Some good old debugging
                'Response.Write iLinkStart & "," & iLinkEnd & "<BR>" & vbCrLf
               
                ' Reset our current location to the end of that link
                iCurrentLocation = iLinkEnd
        Loop
       
        ' Tack on the end of the string.  I need to do this so we
        ' don't miss any trailing non-linked text
        strOutput = strOutput & Mid(strInput, iCurrentLocation)
       
        ' Set the return value
        LinkWords = strOutput
End Function 'LinkURLs
'***** END FUNCTIONS *****


Dim strUnlinked ' The variable to hold out text to be linked up.


' Call our function and write out the results:
Response.Write LinkWordss(strUnlinked)
%>

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the current result is that both [ and ] stay and the [ is used to make the hyper link. I need to know how I should remove the [ and ] all-togeather.

I finally fixed it with

Code:

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        strOutput=(Replace(strOutput, "[", ""))
        strOutput=(Replace(strOutput, "]", ""))

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but it lacks the eligance of doing it while searching thru' it also doesn't help with something else I'd like to do which use the | character and use the first side as the value and the other as the text.

you can post some example for this script?. Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SunLove

you can post some example for this script?. Thanks

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I don't understand the question.

can you send me a sample about this script?
my email: [email protected]
Thank alot.