[RESOLVED] Show All String Characters

[dw85745]

I'm getting a directory/file string from the Command line which is being passed to VB5 from Explorer. When I try to use the string to Open a file it fails.
(BTW, the Open works when I hard code the string within the program).

Is there anyway to show all strings characters to see what I've got
and /or what type of string it is (BSTR, ends with /0, etc.)

[baja_yu]

MsgBox Command$

It will show what is being passed to your application.

[dw85745]

baja_yu

Thanks for response.

Already putting "Command$" string to Label and displaying it.

I'm getting a quote showing up at front end of string from "Command$"
but when string is hard coded into program and also displayed in label,
any string delimiters (quotes) are removed.

Obviously something is different with the strings.

My Understanding -- probably wrong - is that VB uses BSTR strings and Windows uses
some other string type (probably plain ASCII). Can edit the "Command$" string
and make it correct, but would like to know why the difference.

[dw85745]

Displaying the Command path in a label and comparing it to another label which displays a hard coded string of the Path,
the string returned from Command path definitely has extra quotes around it.
Wrote a proc to remove beginning and ending quotes, but program now locks solid when I try and
use the edited Command path.

Back to the drawing board.

[westconn1]

explorer will append (& prepend) quotes to all filepaths containing spaces (only), these will be in your command string

if you are passing multiple files, you can not split on space alone (unless you are sure that there are no spaces within the filepath)

i have posted 2 slightly different codes in the forums, recently, which should be able to return the filenames from the command string, i will see if i can find either

this example is not specifically for command string, but should work

q = Chr(34)
d = " "
myarr = Split(Command, d)
For i = 0 To UBound(myarr)
    If i > UBound(myarr) Then Exit For
    If InStr(myarr(i), q) > 0 Then
        j = 1
        Do
            myarr(i) = myarr(i) & d & myarr(i + j)
            If InStr(myarr(i + j), q) > 0 Then
                myarr(i) = Replace(myarr(i), q, "")  
                For k = i + 1 To UBound(myarr) - i
                    myarr(k) = myarr(k + j)
                Next
                ReDim Preserve myarr(k - 1)
                Exit Do
            End If
            j = j + 1
        Loop
    End If
Next

the other i did, was to do exactly what you are wanting and checked for valid files, do search on command

[Merri]

Here is a Unicode Command$ variant. It works a bit differently: it returns a number of parameters instead the full string, and you need to pass an empty string array which will receive the parameters.

Option Explicit

Private Declare Function CommandLineToArgvW Lib "shell32" (ByVal lpCmdLine As Long, pNumArgs As Integer) As Long
Private Declare Function GetCommandLineW Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Private Declare Sub GetMem4 Lib "msvbvm60" (ByVal Ptr As Long, Value As Long)
Private Declare Function LocalFree Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function lstrlenW Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpString As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub PutMem4 Lib "msvbvm60" (ByVal Ptr As Long, ByVal Value As Long)
Private Declare Function SysAllocStringLen Lib "oleaut32" (ByVal Ptr As Long, ByVal Length As Long) As Long

Public Function Command(Parameters() As String, Optional EXE As String) As Long
    Dim A As Integer, I As Long, Ptr As Long, Pos As Long
    If Not Not Parameters Then Erase Parameters
    Debug.Assert App.hInstance
    Parameters = VBA.Split(vbNullString)
    Ptr = CommandLineToArgvW(GetCommandLineW, A)
    If Ptr <> 0 And A > 0 Then
        GetMem4 Ptr, Pos
        PutMem4 VarPtr(EXE), SysAllocStringLen(Pos, lstrlenW(Pos))
        If A > 1 Then
            ReDim Parameters(0 To A - 2)
            For I = Ptr + 4 To Ptr + (A - 1) * 4 Step 4
                GetMem4 I, Pos
                PutMem4 VarPtr(Parameters(Command)), SysAllocStringLen(Pos, lstrlenW(Pos))
                Command = Command + 1
            Next I
        End If
        LocalFree Ptr
    End If
End Function

The advantage is that quoted filenames are automatically taken into account so you don't need to care about quotes in your own code. It parses the command line parameters as any Windows application should.

Also note that opening a file using VB6 file functions will fail if the filename contains any character that is not found in the current locale's ANSI character set. You need to use Unicode file API to be able to open filenames with any character.

[westconn1]

It parses the command line parameters as any Windows application should.

i was surprised there was not some simple method to parse the command line, without having to resort to methods like above, but had not previously, found any reference to those APIs

[Merri]

Yeah, well, it is done the C/C++ way. And from what I've read in C/C++ they have other easier means available as well. Argv gives a challenging return value. Anyway, the good thing is that there is atleast something available that can be used via VB6 as well.

If you only want the complete string to work with you can use GetCommandLineW, create a BSTR out of it and parse it manually.

Option Explicit

Private Declare Function GetCommandLineW Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Private Declare Function lstrlenW Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpString As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub PutMem4 Lib "msvbvm60" (ByVal Ptr As Long, ByVal Value As Long)
Private Declare Function SysAllocStringLen Lib "oleaut32" (ByVal Ptr As Long, ByVal Length As Long) As Long

Public Function CommandW() As String
    Dim Ptr As Long: Ptr = GetCommandLineW
    If Ptr Then
        PutMem4 VarPtr(CommandW), SysAllocStringLen(Ptr, lstrlenW(Ptr))
        If AscW(CommandW) = 34 Then
            CommandW = Mid$(CommandW, InStr(CommandW, """ ") + 2)
        Else
            CommandW = Mid$(CommandW, InStr(CommandW, " ") + 1)
        End If
    End If
End Function

If you wonder why I use Mid$ to cut the string it is because the first part of the string contains the full path to the executable. Something we don't want with VB6 compatibility.


Edit!
And yes, GetCommandLineW does contain a trailing space even when there are no parameters given at all. I didn't check whether there is always a trailing space character.

[dw85745]

First let me thank everyone for their assistance. Greatly appreciated.

For what I thought would take me an hour to write a simple program to substitute the
current folder on my system for the embedded folder associated with a image on
a downloaded web page has turned into a good reminder of "Murray's Law".

That said, it appears I may be dealing with two issues.

1) Getting a file string from Explorer from VB using the Command line function where the file name contains spaces.

In this instance stripping the quotes from the beginning and end of the file name that is returned on the
command line "appears" (juries still out) to resolve the issue.

   

   strExplorerPath = Command$()
   
    
   'NOTE:
   'The Command Line returns a string with quotes on
   'beginning and end.  These need to be removed otherwise
   'fails as string
   'Strip right quote character
   If Right$(strExplorerPath, 1) = Chr$(34) Then
      strExplorerPath = Left$(strExplorerPath, Len(strExplorerPath) - 1)
   End If
   
   'Strip left quote character
   If Left$(strExplorerPath, 1) = Chr$(34) Then
      strExplorerPath = Right$(strExplorerPath, Len(strExplorerPath) - 1)
   End If

2) The second issue:
I just happened to download a second web page to use for testing
that contains some type of scheme to keep a search/replace program from altering the
htm file (my luck).
So I need to spend some time figuring out what was down and how to beat it as I'm sure
it may be used more than just the page I picked.

Consequently, I am closing this thread.