Analysis of Serial port data using a text file

[hatzo]

Hi All,

I need some real help. My programming experience is about 20 hour’s total. I am using visual basic express 2005. I want to create an application which opens a com port and references the received data to a text file or some other user editable file. I have created the application and the com port opens and I can see the data. I have then used some "if then" statements to check for certain bytes and display a message. This works; however for three days I have tried to understand how to reference a database or text file and out put the results: e.g. I receive T1380000A0005 on my serial line. I want to split the serial data as T138000 and 0005 "removing the 0A" then I want to reference each split in a files similar to the below:-

#T138000#Button Press 1#
#T138080#Button Release 1#

#0005#Bus 0#Unit ID 5#
#0004#Bus 0#Unit ID 4#

Then in a text box I want to output the result as:-

Button 1 Pressed on Unit 5 Bus 0

I have racked my brains on this with no luck, and remember it’s all Chinese to me, so any real world examples would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Mike

[Al42]

Since VB 2005 is VB .net, you should be posting in Visual Basic .NET.

Look at (I believe it's still in VB 2005) the Split function. (It migt be a method of class String in 2005.) Also Mid$, Left$ and Right$ (which might also be methods now).

If you want to compare each input from the port to the entire user file, I'd suggest a small database (create an access table and use that from VB). Then you can "Select" just the entries with the text you want - T138000 or Button or whatever, without having to check every single entry.

[McManCSU]

Look at using a StringTokenizer class. You can do split things according to some delimiter.
You can copy this code:

'StringTokenizer Class
Private s As String, i As Integer
Private sep As String   'token separator
Private stokens() As String 'array of tokens
 
 
Public Sub init(ByVal st As String, ByVal seper As String)
    s = st
    sep = seper
    setSeparator (seper)
End Sub
 
Public Sub setSeparator(ByVal sp As String)
    sep = sp
    stokens = Split(s, sp)
    i = -1
End Sub
 
 
Public Function nextToken() As String
    Dim tok As String
    If i < UBound(stokens) Then
        i = i + 1
        tok = stokens(i)
    Else
        tok = ""
    End If
    nextToken = tok    'return token
End Function

ie. "T1380000A0005" using "0A" as the delimiter:
Use this way:

dim st as StringTokenizer
dim firstToken as String
dim secondToken as String
 
call st.init("T1380000A0005", "0A")
firstToken = st.nextToken                       'Becomes: T1380000
secondToken = st.nextToken                   'Becomes: 0005