Find and extract data from text files

Hi guys, sorry to be a newbie. I have attempted to find a solution everywhere and this was my last resort.

I have a folder named 'Output' , this folder contains 200-300 .txt files.
Each file when opened has an ID a timestamp and a status the following format

ID: 1073863
TIMESTAMP: 07/02/2011 16:12:05
STATUS:Good

I want to write a script in VB so that on button press I can obtain the ID's
from all those with a status of 'Bad' and save them in a file delimited by new lines and then delete the files with the 'Bad' status from the folder.

Any help or ideas with this would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

Minimatrix

You need to go to project/references and add a reference to the VBScripting runtime. This will give you a whole heap of stuff to use that will allow you to open, read and close files as well as traverse directories etc.

Here's a fine example of how to find a string in a text file.

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=381822

First you have to get all the filenames in your 'Output' folder. Then open each one and search ID and STATUS. For each STATUS found bad, save ID in an array, along with filename.

Then, save in a file all ID's from the array, and delete all files from the array.

Try this, add a reference to the microsoft scripting runtime and then you just need to change FULLPATH to the folder you need too. And also the path for BADIDS, i just called the textfile badids.txt but you need to set path.

Code:

---

Option Explicit
Private Const FULLPATH  As String = "C:\test\"
Private Const BADIDS    As String = "C:\test\BadIDs.txt"
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim oFile        As Object
Dim buf          As String
Dim tmp_FULLPATH As String
Dim oFs          As New FileSystemObject
Dim oFolder      As Folder
    tmp_FULLPATH = FULLPATH
    If Right$(tmp_FULLPATH, 1) <> "\" Then
        tmp_FULLPATH = tmp_FULLPATH & "\"
    End If
    Set oFolder = oFs.GetFolder(tmp_FULLPATH)
    For Each oFile In oFolder.Files
        Open tmp_FULLPATH & oFile.Name For Input As #1
        buf = Input$(LOF(1), #1)
        Close #1
        If InStr(LCase$(buf), "bad") > 0 Then
            Open BADIDS For Append As #1
            Print #1, Mid$(buf, 1, InStr(1, buf, vbNewLine))
            Close #1
            Kill tmp_FULLPATH & oFile.Name
        End If
    Next oFile
End Sub

---

This assumes a couple of things, first that there will only be one occurance of the word bad in the file, and second that the ID is alays on the first line.

You don't write "scripts" in VB, you write programs. Or are you in the wrong forum and asking about writing a WSH script in VBScript?

In VB you can use the FSO, but it tends to be slower than native I/O operations and can only move forward through TextStreams. Using the Dir$() function can be much quicker than using the FSO's GetFolder() method and Folder object. In VBScript that's your only option though.

Generally you wouldn't mix both techniques in the same VB program, but nothing prevents you from doing so.

Thanks for all your input, I did indeed mean a vb program not script. Truth is I am perl/php developer so call everything code wise a script.

I will take into account all of your input and see what I can do. Thanks for helping me on my venture into VB.

I will post back soon to let you know how I get on :D