Opening a file with an unknown name...possible? 1

[CHeighlund]

I'm working with a program that's supposed to read a flat file in, then parse it for output purposes. I know how you read a file in normally, like this:

  AssignFile(InFile, '[Path]\[to]\[Filename].[ext]');
  Reset(InFile);

The problem here is that I'm not sure I can count on the name of the file I'm reading in being static; if I understand correctly, it's being created by another program that I don't have access to, and the filenames are identified in part by the file's date of creation. (Ex: FOO_102907.txt, BAR_020205.txt, etc.) Is there some way to use a wildcard character in an AssignFile command's second parameter so I can catch anything with the appropriate extension? The extension is an in-house four character combination I can't recall having seen anywhere else before, so I'd assume it's unique enough. And I can guarantee that there will only be one file with the appropriate extension in the target directory I'm trying to read from, I simply can't guarantee the exact name of the file. The problem is, when I've tried using the '*' wildcard, my program throws errors. Is there some other way to pick up a file with a non-static name, or do I need to try and gain access to the original program that creates the file for me in the first place?

 

[towerbase]

You should find that FindFirst function will provide the wildcard access to the file you want.

Something like this should work:

var
  tsr: TSearchRec;
...
begin
...
  if FindFirst( path + '???_??????.txt', 0, tsr ) = 0 then begin
    filename := path + tsr.name;
    ProcessFile( filename );    // Your code to process file
  end;
  FindClose( tsr );
...

The ? is a wildcard representing a single character. A * is the wildcard to represent more than one character.

Andrew
Hampshire, UK

 

[CHeighlund]

This does appear to be doing what I needed done. I thank you for your assistance.

 

[Ante0]

Would '?' wildcard work in a dospromt too?
I'm at work now, and wont get near any regular computer in a while. (Using these slimclients, ugly as hell!)

 

[harebrain]

>Would '?' wildcard work in a dospromt too?

Yes. I presume DOS origins is the reason these characters are used this way.