Playing with strings

jjames

Let's admit it, without feedback we mind as well be programming a Harmony Remote. The user needs to see what's going on right? Well, thankfully there's a lot of InConcert files & modules to help us out with all this parsing. But when there isn't, it's up to us to figure it . . .and, I particually LOVE to parse strings. So here's some tricks I use.

Here's a three one-liner string manipulation codes. The first one I got from at P2.

(* TRIM x NUMBER OF CHARACTERS FROM END *)

cSTRING = SET_LENGTH_STRING(LENGTH_STRING(cSTRING)-x)

(* REMOVE x NUMBER OF CHARACTERS FROM START *)

REMOVE_STRING(cSTRING,LEFT_STRING(cSTRING,x),1)

(* REMOVE x NUMBER OF CHARACTERS IN THE MIDDLE OF STRING STARTING AT y*)

REMOVE_STRING(cSTRING,MID_STRING(cSTRING,y,x),y)

cwpartridge

jjames wrote:

(* REMOVE x NUMBER OF CHARACTERS FROM START *)

REMOVE_STRING(cSTRING,LEFT_STRING(cSTRING,x),1)

A better solution (in NetLinx) is GET_BUFFER_STRING.

GET_BUFFER_STRING(cSTRING,x)

jjames

Nice one!

Cool - much less typing. Didn't know about that one. Thanks!

Of course, these are the way I figured things, which might be a long way (as seen above.) If anyone has any suggestions, ideas - don't hesitate.

Chip Moody

jjames wrote:

(* REMOVE x NUMBER OF CHARACTERS IN THE MIDDLE OF STRING STARTING AT y*)

REMOVE_STRING(cSTRING,MID_STRING(cSTRING,y,x),y)

cSTRING = "ABCDEFGH"
x = 2
y = 4

MID_STRING(cSTRING,y,x) = "DE"

REMOVE_STRING(cSTRING,"DE",y) = "ABCDE"
cSTRING = "FGH"

No?

jjames

No, cSTRING would equal 'ABCFGH'. See Tech Note #538; your example is the "old" way of things.

Someone on the board posted a FUNCTION to remove a word or phrase from a string. This can also be accomplished with a one-liner:

cSTRING = 'We are trying to remove this word from this phrase.'
REMOVE_STRING(cSTRING,'this word',FIND_STRING(cSTRING,'this word',1))

cSTRING now equals 'We are trying to remove from this phrase.'

Joe Hebert

Keeping in the theme of playing with strings, there are a few built in functions that exist in other languages that don?t natively exist in Netlinx. AMX posted code for these functions in Tech Notes which I normally include in a Globals.axi. They are:

Tech Note 659: TRIM_STRING
Tech Note 660: FIND_STRING_REV
Tech Note 661: REPLACE_STRING
Tech Note 662: SPLIT_STRING

SPLIT_STRING is a favorite of mine because it?s a simple way to parse data in a comma delimited file.

GSLogic

This one is VERY useful!

One example:
If you always need to have a string length of 2 (DOUBLE DIGITS) try this:

cVAR = RIGHT_STRING("'00', ITOA(nMIN)",2);

I use it to display time in two digits.
If ITOA(nMIN) is a single digit like 1-9, you'll get two digits 09, anything over a single digit will return as a standard two digit value because the '00' is first in the string. The same idea can be used for LEFT_STRING or MID_STRING!

09:05AM instead of 9:5AM.

-Gary

Joe Hebert

GSLogic wrote:

This one is VERY useful!

One example:
If you always need to have a string length of 2 (DOUBLE DIGITS) try this:

cVAR = RIGHT_STRING("'00', ITOA(nMIN)",2);

There?s always more than one way to skin a cat. Here's one alternative that will yield the same results:
cVAR = FORMAT('%02d', nMIN)

Chip Moody

jjames wrote:

No, cSTRING would equal 'ABCFGH'. See Tech Note #538; your example is the "old" way of things.

Ahhh. Silly me, going by the NS online docs for Netlinx keywords... (<- tounge planted firmly in cheek)

- Chip