[RESOLVED] Just Checking ..

[rory]

if there is another way to do this .. or is this pretty much it?

The sentence can look like this .. item in bold is the text needed

05/24/06 16:00 -- Start working on #1

iPos = (InStr(sTemp, "-- ") + 3)                    ' START POINT
iPoe = InStr(iPos, sTemp, " ")                      ' END POINT
sTemp = Trim$(Mid$(sTemp, iPos, (iPoe - iPos)))     ' GET TEXT

[noielen]

for that example surely your code is ok... what are the other records?

[rory]

just an example sentence, just wanted to see if there was another way I havent seen yet, on getting specific text out of a sentence .. this is pretty much the way ive always done it in vbscript .. was curious if there was any other method in VB :-)

thanks ..

[Joacim Andersson]

Well, you can use the Split function to split up a string by a specified separator, in your case you should probably use space. But in this particular case I think you should go with what you've got.

[smUX]

If you did use split, and you always had a "-- " before it you could always look for that and have the next item in the array or you could do an instr then right from what the instr returns and split then array(1) would be your word...but it's all just faffing around for what is basically easiest to do your current way. I would even go out on a limb and say that it is how everyone here does it :-)

[doofusboy]

For sTemp = "05/24/06 16:00 -- Start working on #1"

If you wanted to use Split, this should return "Start":

your_result = Split(Split(sTemp, "--")(1), " ")(1)

[rory]

For sTemp = "05/24/06 16:00 -- Start working on #1"

If you wanted to use Split, this should return "Start":

your_result = Split(Split(sTemp, "--")(1), " ")(1)

thanks, thats what I was looking for .. didnt knowi could use split like that .. cool thanks .

Rory

[Joacim Andersson]

As I've already mentioned earlier, I wouldn't use Split for this purpose. Even though it may look cool with a one-liner like the above it consumes more memory and runs much slower then the code you used from start.

[smUX]

It was something I was previously unaware of though...could be useful.

Rory, if you parse words out of strings often, consider putting your code into a function...that way you use one line to call the 3 lines you need actioned...all you'd have to give the function is the original source string, start and end points and it should return the required word :-)

[rory]

Thats good to know also Joacim .. and smux Ill see if i can just put it in a function ..

[smUX]

it shuold be as simple as "private function getparse(source as string, start as string, end as string) as string" with "getparse=results" (results would be whatever you call the string that you put the results into...to return results from a function you use {function name} = {results to return}

[rory]

sTemp = StripText(sTemp, "-- ", " ")
 
'// CUT TEXT FROM STRING
Public Function StripText(ByVal source As String, _
    ByVal start As String, ByVal finish As String) As String
    Dim iPos As Integer, iPoe As Integer
    iPos = (InStr(source, start) + Len(start))
    iPoe = InStr(iPos, source, finish)
    StripText = Trim$(Mid$(source, iPos, (iPoe - iPos)))
End Function

[smUX]

*almost* right...iPos line...you have +3...it needs to be + len(start) as start length is variable length now :-)

Also, do you need trim$ on the mid$? If you NEED it and never need untrimmed data returned, stay with it...just remember if you use it in other projects (that's the beauty of subs...you can use them elsewhere easily) just remember you trim it too :-)

[rory]

yep your right there .. ;-)
i had that originally, took it out .. der yah go .. :-))

Actually i use common functions in VBscript more than i do in VB ..
but then vbscript doesnt give us as much to work with ..

Yeah i think we need Trim in this case ..

here's another i use all the time .. brought over from vbscript ..
i usually put them all in modCommon.bas,
theres tons of database related ones i use..

'// CHECK FILE EXISTS FSO METHOD
Public Function DoesFileExist(ByVal rFile As String) As Boolean
    Dim objFso 'As FileSystemObject (reference)
    On Error Resume Next
    Set objFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    If (objFso.FileExists(rFile)) Then
        DoesFileExist = True
    End If
    Set objFso = Nothing
End Function

[smUX]

"doesfileexist" is a bit like a sledgehammer to crack a nut when you can just as easily use dir(filename) :-)

"if dir("c:\filename.txt") then" should work just as well, I believe :-P

[rory]

Dir wont work if there is no string .. if it is blank for example. like if you dont hard code it in there .. it will still return TRUE. It works if you know for sure you have entered the file path manually. Most cases it will be fine ..

example ...

Private sFile As String
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
    If Len(Dir$(App.Path & "\" & sFile)) Then
        Debug.Print "Exists: " & App.Path & "\" & sFile
    End If
End Sub
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
    If Len(Dir$(sFile)) Then
        Debug.Print "Exists: " & sFile
    End If
End Sub

[Joacim Andersson]

That's simply because if you pass an empty string to the Dir function it looks for any file in the current directory and returns the first it finds. In other words it's the same thing as doing Dir("*.*"). But you can easily code around that by first checking if the passed string actually contains anything (using the Len function). You should also use error checking in the function if you use the Dir function since it might raise error 53 (File not found). Just try passing a string that only contains a space to it.