Breaking Text Files 2

[ljavier34]

I've been trying to do this for the past few days and cannot get it. All I want to do is break and initial text file that has a whole bunch of information in two files that contain only the lines that start with ND in one file, and the other file with all the lines that start with EL.

a Sample text file would be something like this...

flajfl
afalfj
ND, 3 4 5
ND, 3 6 7
EL, 1 2 3
EL 123

I was trying to use the split function, but I got all confused with it...This is what I have so far...I am looking for the letter "H" as the start of the line in this code...

Sub Perm()

Dim variable1 As String
Dim StartTag As String
Dim TextIn As String
Dim EndTag As String
Dim lArray As Variant

StartTag = "H"
Wrap$ = Chr$(13) + Chr$(10)
EndTag = Wrap$

Open "C:\Documents and Settings\Javier B\Desktop\sample.txt" For Input As #1

Do Until EOF(1)

Input #1, variable1
Alltext$ = Alltext$ & variable1 & Wrap$

Loop

charsInFile = Len(Alltext$)

For i = 1 To charsInFile
letters = Mid(Alltext, i, 1)

If letters = Chr(13) Then

j = i + 1
sentence = Mid(Alltext, j)
'Debug.Print sentence

TextIn = sentence
Extract = " "
lArray = Split(TextIn, StartTag)
'If IsArray(lArray) Then
Extract = lArray(0)
Debug.Print lArray(0)
'lArray = Split(Extract, EndTag)

'If IsArray(lArray) Then
'Extract = lArray(0)

'Else
'Extract = " "

'End If

'End If
'Debug.Print Extract
End If

Next i

Close #1

End Sub


Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated...

Thank you,

Javier

 

[CajunCenturion]

I would process the file one line at a time. Instead of using Input, use Line Input and do everything inside the loop.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[johnwm]

You may also note that there is an intrinsic VB constant for Chr(13) & Chr(10). You can simply use vbCRLF for the combination.

Good Luck
johnwm
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[AHay]

This type of problem can be solved quite easily using awk, but unfortunately, awk is not available as standard on Windows. If you can download and install it on your machine, it might make the problem easier to solve.

Another solution would be to take a look at regular expressions in VB. You can use the regular expression matches to filter out the contents of the initial file.

You may also want to take a look at the FileSystemObject for reading/writing files. It always seems to be much easier than the Open function in my opinion.

 

[PeterCharles]

If I understand what you want then my approach would be :-

1) open file 0 to read from
2) open file 1 to write to
3) open file 2 to write to

read line from file 0
if the two left characters = "ND" then write line to file 1
if the two left characters = "EL" then write line to file 2

Loop for all lines in file 0

You then have file 1 containing just lines starting ND, and file 2 just containing lines starting EL

All the necessary code is in the VB help files.

Hope this is what you want.

 

[ljavier34]

Peter,

My biggest problem is how to do the if statements that you are proposing, I cannot find the function to read the two left characters...I'd really appreciate any thoughts...

Thank you in advanced

 

[CajunCenturion]

Have you looked at the LEFT function?

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[ljavier34]

I finally got the program to do what I wanted... The problem ended up being the loop which was misplaced...Here's the code if someone else ever needs it..
However, right now I have it printing to the inmediate window and is looking for lines that start with "Ho"...

Thank to you all

Sub Breaking()


Open "C:\Documents and Settings\Javier B\Desktop\sample.txt" For Input As #1

Do Until EOF(1)

Line Input #1, variable1

Dim CheckFor As String

CheckFor = "Ho"

lLen = Len(CheckFor)

sCompare = Left(variable1, lLen)

StringStartsWith = StrComp(sCompare, CheckFor, vbTextCompare)

If StringStartsWith = 0 Then

Debug.Print variable1

End If

Loop

Close #1

End Sub

 

[PeterCharles]

Working from my example I would have used --

If StrComp(Left(Variable1, 2), "ND") = 0 Then 'we have a match
print into file1
ElseIf StrComp(Left(Variable1, 2), "EL") = 0 Then 'we have a different match
print into file2
EndIf

Note, I would ALWAYS use the FreeFile function to get a file number as it can save a lot of problems.

 

[nhebb]

+1 for Peter's suggestions. You might try something like the following:

Sub Breaking()

    Dim sLine As String
    
    Open "C:\Output.txt" For Output As #0
    Open "C:\ND.txt" For Input As #1
    
    Do While Not EOF(1)
        Line Input #1, sLine
        If (UCase$(Left$(sLine, 2)) = "ND") Then
            Print #0, sLine
        End If
    Loop
    Close #1
    Open "C:\EL.txt" For Input As #2
    Do While Not EOF(2)
        Line Input #2, sLine
        If (UCase$(Left$(sLine, 2)) = "EL") Then
            Print #0, sLine
        End If
    Loop
    Close #0
    Close #2

End Sub

-HTH,

Nick

 

[PeterCharles]

Please

"use the FreeFile function to get a file number as it can save a lot of problems."