Find specific characters

[vagelisr]

Hi to all.

I use winsock to send some data in barcode printers.

In one of my command the printer send me back this


PRINTER STATUS
ERRORS: 1 00000000 00000100
WARNINGS: 0 00000000 00000000


How it is possible to discard all the other and keep only the middle line with or without the word ERRORS:
something like this
ERRORS: 1 00000000 00000100
or this
1 00000000 00000100

Thanks and regards.

[Edgemeal]

For multiline text try splitting text on carraige return, loop thru array, something like,..

Dim msg As String = "PRINTER STATUS" & Environment.NewLine _
                  & "ERRORS: 1 00000000 00000100" & Environment.NewLine _
                  & "WARNINGS: 0 00000000 00000000" & Environment.NewLine

Dim result As String = ""
Dim lines = msg.Split({Environment.NewLine}, StringSplitOptions.None)
For Each line In lines
    If line.StartsWith("ERRORS:") Then
        result = line
        Exit For
    End If
Next
If result <> "" Then
    MessageBox.Show(result, "ERROR", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Asterisk)
End If

[thetimmer]

What are you holding the return value in, a string, stringbuilder, array, ...?
If it's a string look at

string.split

[thetimmer]

Edgemeal, how might you do this with LINQ ?

[thetimmer]

I'm not great with LINQ but here was one example.

Dim msg As String = "PRINTER STATUS" & Environment.NewLine _
                  & "ERRORS: 1 00000000 00000100" & Environment.NewLine _
                  & "WARNINGS: 0 00000000 00000000" & Environment.NewLine
      
  Dim var = From s In msg.Split(vbCrLf) Select s Where s.ToUpper.Contains("ERRORS")
        If var.ToString.Length >= 0 Then
            MessageBox.Show(var(0).ToString)
        Else
            MessageBox.Show("Not Found")
        End If '

[Edgemeal]

Edgemeal, how might you do this with LINQ ?

untested...

result = lines.Where(Function(n) n.StartsWith("ERRORS:"))(0)

[thetimmer]

thanks

[IanRyder]

Hi,

Just to expand on what has already been posted and using LINQ with Edgemeal’s String Variable, how about:-

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
  Dim msg As String = "PRINTER STATUS" & Environment.NewLine _
                      & "ERRORS: 1 00000000 00000100" & Environment.NewLine _
                      & "WARNINGS: 0 00000000 00000000" & Environment.NewLine
 
  Dim fullMiddleLine As String = msg.Split(Environment.NewLine).Skip(1).Take(1).First
  MsgBox(fullMiddleLine)
 
  Dim partialMiddleLine As String = msg.Split(Environment.NewLine).Skip(1).Take(1).First.Split(":"c).Last
  MsgBox(partialMiddleLine)
End Sub

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Ian

[dday9]

Because this is string and pattern recognition then I think that RegEx would be better suited:

Imports System
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Public Module Module1
	Public Sub Main()
		Dim msg As String = "PRINTER STATUS" & Environment.NewLine _
                  & "ERRORS: 1 00000000 00000100" & Environment.NewLine _
                  & "WARNINGS: 0 00000000 00000000" & Environment.NewLine

		'Match the word ERRORS: and any whitespace or digit after it
		Dim r As Regex = New Regex("(ERRORS:)(\s|\d)+")
		
		If r.IsMatch(msg) Then
			Console.WriteLine(r.Match(msg))
		End If
	End Sub
End Module

[vagelisr]

First of all thanks for your time

This is the code i use to take the specific string back

                    Dim sendBytes As [Byte]() = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes("~HQES" & vbCrLf)
                    networkStream.Write(sendBytes, 0, sendBytes.Length)
                    Dim bytes1(tcpClient.ReceiveBufferSize) As Byte
                    networkStream.Read(bytes1, 0, CInt(tcpClient.ReceiveBufferSize))
                    Dim returndata As String = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(bytes1)
                    tcpClient.Close()
                    Dim Leng As Integer = returndata.Length
                    If Leng > 2 Then
                        Call Cut_String(returndata)
                    End If

Unfortunately none of your solutions work

[dday9]

Is the data that gets returned truly in this format:

PRINTER STATUS
ERRORS: 1 00000000 00000100
WARNINGS: 0 00000000 00000000

Or is that just some "example data" that you put? We would need an exact representation of the data that is returned.

[Inferrd]

maybe

Dim theErrs As String = returndata.Split(New String() {vbCr, vbLf}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)(1).Replace("ERRORS: ", "")
MsgBox(theErrs)

If the other solutions didn't work, then what did they do? Produce an error? If so, what was it? Or produce the wrong text? If so, what was that?

[vagelisr]

Hi again
This is the answer i take back from a barcode printer exactly as i sow you in the first post.
Me i want the 17 digits after the error.
All of this digits accordingly the value and the digit is a different error

Thanks again for your time!!!!!

For the last post

                Dim theErrs As String = SocketData.Split(New String() {vbCr, vbLf}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)(1).Replace("ERRORS: ", "")
                MsgBox(theErrs)

The msgbos show "PRINTER STATUS"

[Inferrd]

For the last post

                Dim theErrs As String = SocketData.Split(New String() {vbCr, vbLf}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)(1).Replace("ERRORS: ", "")
                MsgBox(theErrs)

The msgbos show "PRINTER STATUS"

That code was grabbing the second line from the three lines of the message you posted above. As you are seeing what looks like the first line, then that would suggest that there are actually 4 lines being returned by the printer, and the first line contains only non-printable characters (other than LineFeed or CarriageReturn). You should investigate this by examining the raw bytes returned in your bytes1 array.

The following is fairly explicit code that should allow for "invisible" lines, and is hopefully easier for you to understand ,and easier to debug/modify:

Dim errDigits As String = Nothing

Dim theLines() As String = SocketData.Split(New String() {vbCr, vbLf}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
For Each line As String In theLines
    line = line.Trim
    If line.ToUpper.StartsWith("ERRORS:") Then
        errDigits = line.Replace("ERRORS:", "").Trim
        Exit For
    End If
Next

If errDigits IsNot Nothing Then
    MsgBox(errDigits)
Else
    MsgBox("Failed")
End If

Didn't DDay9's code return the correct line, except it would still be starting with "ERROR:"? If that is the case, then all you needed to do was use the .Replace method on their output as I have above.

[vagelisr]

Using the code of Inferrd with some changes

                Dim soclength As Int16 = Len(SocketData)
                Dim errDigits As String = Nothing
                Dim theLines() As String = SocketData.Split(New String() {vbCr, vbLf}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
                For Each line As String In theLines
                    line = line.Trim
                Next

i take back this
soclength=8193
line1 = ""
line2 = " PRINTER STATUS "
line3 = ""
after the line 3 exit from the for loop

Does anybody understand what if going on?????

[Inferrd]

You don't say whether my code managed to display the error digits or not.

Seeing what the printer actually sends you might shed some light on the problem. Can you save the raw data to a file and attach that file here?

Preferably save the raw bytes returned by the network stream (the contents of your bytes1 array as in Post#10) to a file using IO.File.WriteAllBytes(someFilePath, bytes1).

Failing that, save the SocketData string using IO.File.WriteAllText(someFilePath, SocketData).

[vagelisr]

Change the code to this

                    Dim sendBytes As [Byte]() = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes("~HQES" & vbCrLf)
                    networkStream.Write(sendBytes, 0, sendBytes.Length)
                    Dim bytes1(tcpClient.ReceiveBufferSize) As Byte
                    networkStream.Read(bytes1, 0, CInt(tcpClient.ReceiveBufferSize))
                    Dim returndata As String = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(bytes1)
                    IO.File.WriteAllBytes(AppPath() & "Socketdata1.txt", bytes1)
                    tcpClient.Close()
                    Dim Leng As Integer = returndata.Length
                    If Leng > 2 Then
                        My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllText(AppPath() & "Socketdata2.txt", returndata, False)
                    End If

the 2 files Socketdata1.txt and Socketdata2.txt are exactly the same and nowhere exist the word errors or warnings
Can anyone understand why????