File / string question

[ZeroEffect]

Ok I have a program that imports ASCII text file to create a DBF file. Just creating the DBF file is not an option, if it was life would be grand.

 

The ASCII text file has a format that goes as follows

 

The complete line is 132 characters long and based on the information in the line more or less information is added to the new file.

 

the 132 characters are just 20 columns with no delimiters. i have created an excell file that will create the above structure but I can only export it with delimiters. Sounds easy enough, read the exported text file into an array the write the array back to a new text file, but I am having some issues. If there is nothing in a column I have to create the spaces to show no data has been entered.

 

If I step through the data everything looks good but when it writes to a file randomly some lines are off by on character.

 

Here is some code.

 

'Ok all the backslashes have been removed when I post and I 
'can't remember how to make the show up.

   Private Function GetLog()
       Dim lines As String
       Dim info() As String
       Dim myLog As String = "C:\Dad\Import\FreshExport.txt"
       Dim srr As StreamReader
       Dim i As Integer
       Dim j As Integer
       Dim strformatedline As String
       Dim itm As ListViewItem

       Try
           If File.Exists(myLog) Then
               srr = New StreamReader(myLog)
               lines = srr.ReadToEnd
               info = lines.Split(Environment.NewLine)
               For i = LBound(info) To UBound(info)
                   Dim tempArray() As String
                   tempArray = info(i).Split(vbTab)
                   strformatedline = ""
                   itm = ListView1.Items.Add(tempArray(0))
                   For j = 1 To UBound(tempArray)
                       itm.SubItems.Add(tempArray(j))
                   Next
                   For j = LBound(tempArray) To UBound(tempArray)
                       strformatedline = strformatedline & BuildString(tempArray(j), (j + 1))

                   Next
                   If strformatedline.Length < 132 Then
                       strformatedline = BuildString(strformatedline, 0)
                   End If
                   BuildFile(strformatedline)
               Next

           Else
               MessageBox.Show("File not found")
           End If
       Catch ex As Exception
           MessageBox.Show("Error reading file: " & ex.Message)
       Finally
           If Not srr Is Nothing Then
               srr.Close()
           End If
       End Try
   End Function

   Public Function BuildString(ByVal strData As String, ByVal intCol As Integer)
       Try
           Dim strTempData As String
           If intCol = 0 Then
               'This is just used incase there are blank lines
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 132)
           ElseIf intCol = 1 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 5)
           ElseIf intCol = 2 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 1)
           ElseIf intCol = 3 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 8)
           ElseIf intCol = 4 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 2)
           ElseIf intCol = 5 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 1)
           ElseIf intCol = 6 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 1)
           ElseIf intCol = 7 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 1)
           ElseIf intCol = 8 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 8)
           ElseIf intCol = 9 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 1)
           ElseIf intCol = 10 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 8)
           ElseIf intCol = 11 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 8)
           ElseIf intCol = 12 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 1)
           ElseIf intCol = 13 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 35)
           ElseIf intCol = 14 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 10)
           ElseIf intCol = 15 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 7)
           ElseIf intCol = 16 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 7)
           ElseIf intCol = 17 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 7)
           ElseIf intCol = 18 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 7)
           ElseIf intCol = 19 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 7)
           ElseIf intCol = 20 Then
               strTempData = BuildSpacing(strData, 7)
           End If

           'MsgBox(intCol & "     " & strTempData.Length)

           Return strTempData

       Catch ex As Exception

       End Try
   End Function

   Private Function BuildSpacing(ByVal strData As String, ByVal intTLength As Integer) As String
       Dim modata As String
       Dim i As Integer
       modata = strData
       For i = strData.Length + 1 To intTLength
           modata = modata & " "
       Next

       Return modata

   End Function

   Public Sub BuildFile(ByVal strData As String)
       Try
           If System.IO.File.Exists("C:\Dad\import\tempFile.log") = False Then
               Dim SW As New IO.StreamWriter("C:\Dad\import\tempFile.log", False, System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII)
               SW.Write(strData & vbCr)
               SW.Close()
           Else
               Dim SW As New IO.StreamWriter("C:\Dad\import\tempFile.log", True, System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII)
               SW.Write(strData & vbCr)
               SW.Close()
           End If
       Catch ex As Exception
       End Try
   End Sub

 

Any thoughts?

 

you will find in the buildstring function the size of each column.

 

I am lost as to why this is happening. I have attached an example file created by this application

 

Thanks for any thought you may have.

 

ZeroEffect

tempFile.txt

[Eduardo Lorenzo]

try to TRIM the string before sending it to BuildSpacing or inside buildspacing.

 

Private Function BuildSpacing(ByVal strData As String, ByVal intTLength As Integer) As String
       Dim modata As String
       Dim i As Integer
       modata = strData.Trim <--- here
       For i = strData.Length + 1 To intTLength
           modata = modata & " "
       Next

       Return modata

   End Function

[ZeroEffect]

Well I gave "Trim" a try and well that helped in some ways but hosed me in others. So that is not going to work. Here is what was going on with trim. If my string was not 132 in length then it would be built just adding spaces to the end to make it 132, trim removed all the spaces and well that isn't good.

 

Hmm I'll keep playing around any other ideas?

 

Thanks

 

ZeroEffect

[MrPaul]

TrimEnd

 

Trim removes both leading and trailing characters from a string. TrimStart removes only leading characters and TrimEnd removes only trailing characters. Both of these methods take a parameter specifying which characters are to be removed:

 

    Private Function BuildSpacing(ByVal strData As String, ByVal intTLength As Integer) As String
       Dim modata As String
       Dim i As Integer
       modata = strData.TrimEnd(" "c) 'Remove trailing spaces
       For i = modata.Length + 1 To intTLength
           modata = modata & " "
       Next

       Return modata
   End Function

 

As a side note, you could make BuildSpacing more efficient by using the StringBuilder class.

 

Good luck :cool:

[ZeroEffect]

Thanks I'll look into the StringBuilder class.