Syntax Highlighting, highlighting text already there

hello, i have a function for highlighting keywords in text and it works fine if your typing keywords, but when i load a file it doesnt highlight the keywords i have that are in the file. in fact after loading a file, even if i type a keyword it doesn't highlight... any help?
heres the code i have to highlight:

vb Code:

Private Sub HighlightC(Find As String, Color As OLE_COLOR, MainColor As OLE_COLOR)
    Dim i As Long
    Dim txtBox As String
    Dim intTxtLen As Integer
    Dim intLength As Integer
    Dim intStart As Integer
    
    intLength = Len(Find)
    txtBox = txtLoad.Text
    intTxtLen = Len(txtLoad.Text)
    
    With txtLoad
        For i = 1 To intTxtLen
            If Mid$(txtBox, i) = Find Then
                .SelStart = i - 1
                .SelLength = intLength
                .SelColor = Color
                .SelStart = intTxtLen
                .SelColor = MainColor
            End If
        Next
        
    End With
End Sub

is your textbox ("txtload") has its additional property?
specifically [.selcolor]..

I assume this is a RichTextBox rather than a TextBox.

Where are you calling the subroutine?

yes, it is a richtextbox. i only have txt because i decided to add highlighting after the fact i had the program all coded..
and i use it on txtload_change. i can't seem to see why its not working...

ok. i have gotten this code:

vb Code:

Private Sub HighlightL(Find As String, Color As OLE_COLOR, MainColor As OLE_COLOR)
 
    Dim i As Long
    Dim txtBox As String
    Dim intTxtLen As Integer
    Dim intLength As Integer
    Dim intPos As Integer
    Dim blnFound As Boolean
    Dim iTemp As Long
    
    intPos = txtLoad.SelStart
    intLength = Len(Find)
    txtBox = txtLoad.Text
    On Error Resume Next
    intTxtLen = Len(txtLoad.Text)
    
    With txtLoad
        For i = 0 To intTxtLen
            intPos = .SelStart
            If .Find(Find, i, i + intLength) = Find Then
                .Find Find, i, i + intLength
                .SelColor = Color
                .SelStart = intPos
                .SelLength = 0
                .SelColor = MainColor
            End If
        Next
    End With
    
End Sub

and it works exactly how i want... one problem.. large files = very very slow. any help on speeding this up?

Have you tried loading the file and then calling HighlightL ? (and disabling the Change event until it's complete.) That should speed things up. At the moment you're executing the code for every change made to the RTB (ie as a new character is added)

How large a file are you dealing with?

the file can be any size as the user loads it...
but i have it in the keydown event and it only calls when a user hits space or enter.

i have gotten code similar to what i have below to work very fast. but it didnt highlight everything so now i tried to edit it and my prog crashed and i lost my code (i learned..). now in this code i have NO idea why but i always equals 0
which results in an infinate loop... which is not what i want.

vb Code:

Private Sub HighlightL(Find As String, Color As OLE_COLOR, MainColor As OLE_COLOR)
 
    Dim i As Long
    Dim txtBox As String
    Dim intTxtLen As Integer
    Dim intLength As Integer
    Dim intPos As Integer
    Dim intPosI As Integer
    Dim blnFound As Boolean
    Dim iTemp As Long
    
    intPos = txtLoad.SelStart
    intLength = Len(Find)
    txtBox = txtLoad.Text
    On Error Resume Next
    intTxtLen = Len(txtLoad.Text)
    
    With txtLoad
        
        Do Until i = intTxtLen
            i = .Find(Find, i, i + intLength)
            
            If Mid(txtBox, i, intLength) = Find Then
                .SelStart = i
                .SelLength = intLength
                .SelColor = Color
                .SelStart = intPos
                .SelLength = 0
                .SelColor = MainColor
            End If
            
            i = i + i
            Debug.Print i
            
        Loop
    End With
    
End Sub

First I'd remove the "On Error Resume Next" and I think you'll find that the .Find method is returning -1 (the search item was not found). This will cause the Mid statement to fail since -1 as a starting point for a sub-string is invalid. Since your code is ignoring this error, it continues and i is then incremented by one (ie set to 0) and the RTB is searched again starting at position 0. Hence an infinite loop with i always being 0 when you display it.

I'd suggest you re-structure slightly, something like this perhaps:

Code:

---

Private Sub HighlightL(Find As String, Color As OLE_COLOR, MainColor As OLE_COLOR)

    Dim i As Long
    Dim txtBox As String
    Dim intTxtLen As Integer
    Dim intLength As Integer
    Dim lngPos As Long
    Dim blnFound As Boolean
    Dim iTemp As Long
   
    intPos = txtLoad.SelStart
    intLength = Len(Find)
    txtBox = txtLoad.Text
    intTxtLen = Len(txtLoad.Text)
   
    With txtLoad
       
        Do Until i >= intTxtLen
            lngPos= .Find(Find, i, i + intLength)
            '
            ' Was the search sting found ?
            '
            If lngPos <> - 1 Then
                '
                ' Yes - Highlight it
                '
                .SelStart = i
                .SelLength = intLength
                .SelColor = Color
                .SelStart = lngPos
                .SelLength = 0
                .SelColor = MainColor
                '
                ' Set the start point for the next search
                '
                i = lngPos + intLen
            Else
                '
                ' The search string was not found so
                ' force the loop to exit
                '
                i = i + intTxtLen
            End If
            Debug.Print i
           
        Loop
    End With
End Sub

---

EDIT: I don't think it has any bearing on what you're doing but I'd change the variable name "Find" to soemthing else as 'Find' is a method of the RTB and using such names for variables can cause unexpected problems.

ok. i noticed you never assign i a value... but i fixed that up but it STILL doesnt stop!
it keeps finding the first keyword over and over and over. i have no clue why. its like i = i + 1 isn't working or something... or theres something about .find i dont know?

eidt: i fixed that up but now it only finds the first keyword.... and this is because i cannot set lngposi to 0... -.-

vb Code:

Private Sub HighlightL(ByVal Find As String, ByVal Color As OLE_COLOR)
 
    Dim txtBox As String
    Dim intTxtLen As Integer
    Dim intLength As Integer
    Dim lngPos As Long
    Dim lngPosI As Integer
    
    lngPosI = 0
    lngPos = txtLoad.SelStart
    intLength = Len(Find)
    txtBox = txtLoad.Text
    On Error Resume Next
    intTxtLen = Len(txtLoad.Text)
    
    With txtLoad
        
        Do Until lngPosI >= intTxtLen
            lngPosI = .Find(Find, lngPosI, lngPosI + intLength)
 
            If lngPosI <> -1 Then
                .SelStart = lngPosI
                .SelLength = intLength
                .SelColor = Color
                .SelStart = lngPos
                .SelLength = 0
                .SelColor = vbBlack
                lngPosI = lngPosI + 1
            Else
 
                lngPosI = lngPosI + intTxtLen
            End If
            Debug.Print lngPosI
 
        Loop
        
    lngPosI = 0
    
    End With
    
End Sub

Ah Ha! I got it!

lngPosI = .Find(Find, lngPosI, lngPosI + intLength)

have to remove lngPosI + intLength from that. Thanks doogle :)