[RESOLVED] Getting specific information from a file?

I open a wave file using

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Open MyFile For Binary Access Read As #1

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The file is a *.wav file and I want to read some specific information like channels, strings, etc...

To read how many channels the audio file contains I use:

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Dim NumChannels As Integer
Get #1, 23, NumChannels
MsgBox NumChannels

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I use the same formula for other kind of data, like long data type. The problem is when I try to do the same using a string.
For example, I want to get the string RIFF, (bytes 1,2,3 and 4 because it's written in the beginning of the file). And I get a msgbox without any value.

I get the RIFF string when I use

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Dim X$
For N = 1 to 10
X$ = Input (4, #1)
MsgBox X$
Next N

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With the RIFF no problem because it's at the beginning of the file, but if I want to get the WAVE string (bytes: 9,10,11 and 12) I've to read RIFF, (other string) and finally WAVE.

How can I access directly to the data I want without reading all the information before that string?

You can dim a string with a length of 4
Open the file for binary
use seek to move to the desired position
use get to read the string

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Originally Posted by DataMiser

You can dim a string with a length of 4
Open the file for binary
use seek to move to the desired position
use get to read the string

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Dim a string with a lenght of 4? How can I do that?

Dim someString As String * 4

Alternately you can Dim the string as usual then initialize it to 4 characters before you use the get method

Code:

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Dim MyString as String
MyString=Space(4)

Get #Filenumber,,MyString

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Thanks to all.
Resolved.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DataMiser

Alternately you can Dim the string as usual then initialize it to 4 characters before you use the get method

Code:

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Dim MyString as String
MyString=Space(4)

Get #Filenumber,,MyString

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That doesn't make the string length 4; it just gives it 4 spaces

Dim MyString As String

MyString = Space(4)

MyString = "abcdefgh"

MyString now contains "abcdefgh"

but

Dim MyString As String * 4

MyString = "abcdefgh"

MyString now contains "abcd" only

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That doesn't make the string length 4; it just gives it 4 spaces

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4 spaces is a length of 4. It is not restricted to 4 though and is still a variable length string but ...

It works for the task at hand.

When you use Get with a string it will get the number of bytes that the string is long. So if .

Code:

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Dim MyString As String
Get #1,,Mystring

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It gets 0 bytes because MyString is empty

Code:

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Dim MyString As String *4
Get #1,,Mystring

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It will get 4 bytes because my string is defined as 4 characters

Code:

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Dim MyString As String
MyString=Space(4)
Get #1,,Mystring

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It will get 4 bytes because MyString is 4 characters long

I've did this many times in the past and it works just fine.

You can even read the entire file into a string [assuming the file is not to big] using

Code:

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Dim MyString As String
MyString=Space(lof(1))
Get #1,,Mystring

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