Searching through text file using wildcard

[hazeus]

I am searching a huge text file for the following text;

3**40**

Where the * represents a wild card
How do I manipulate this line of code to search for this?

if InStr(226, strCurrentLine, "3**40**", vbTextCompare) = 226 Then

Thank you,
Steve

 

[EBGreen]

Search this forum for examples of Regular Expressions then post back here with your code if you have problems.

[red]"... isn't sanity really just a one trick pony anyway?! I mean, all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you are good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit!" - The Tick[/red]

 

[hazeus]

I read a few posts discussing Regular Expressions, in all cases it was searching for filenames with wild cards and I do not understand how to apply it.

Can someone tell me how I would insert a regular expression to solve this issue?

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2

Set objDialog = CreateObject("UserAccounts.CommonDialog")

objDialog.Filter = "Text Files|*.Txt"

intResult = objDialog.ShowOpen

If intResult = 0 Then
Wscript.Quit
Else

strFileName = objDialog.FileName
wscript.echo strFileName
End If

Set objDictionary = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName, ForReading, True)
Set objFilew = objFSO.OpenTextFile("c:\outputfile.txt", ForWriting, True)

Do Until objFile.AtEndOfStream
strCurrentLine = objFile.ReadLine
if InStr(226, strCurrentLine, "3**40**", vbTextCompare) = 226 Then

intRight = Len(strCurrentLine) - 3
strRight = Right(strCurrentLine, intRight)
strLeft = Left(strCurrentLine, 3)
strInsert = "*******Insert Text*********"
strText = strLeft & strInsert & strRight
strContents = strCurrentLine & strText & vbCrLf
wscript.echo strContents

objFilew.WriteLine strText
Else

objFilew.WriteLine strCurrentLine

End If
Loop

objFile.Close
objFilew.Close


MsgBox "Complete

 

[EBGreen]

this is off the cuff, but something like (you may need to play around with the pattern):

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2

Set objDialog = CreateObject("UserAccounts.CommonDialog")

objDialog.Filter = "Text Files|*.Txt"

intResult = objDialog.ShowOpen

If intResult = 0 Then
Wscript.Quit
Else

strFileName = objDialog.FileName
wscript.echo strFileName
End If

Set objDictionary = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName, ForReading, True)
Set objFilew = objFSO.OpenTextFile("c:\outputfile.txt", ForWriting, True)

[red]Set oRE = New RegExp
oRE.Pattern = ".{225}3.*40.*"[/red]
Do Until objFile.AtEndOfStream
strCurrentLine = objFile.ReadLine
if [red]oRE.Test(strCurrentLine)[/red] Then

intRight = Len(strCurrentLine) - 3
strRight = Right(strCurrentLine, intRight)
strLeft = Left(strCurrentLine, 3)
strInsert = "*******Insert Text*********"
strText = strLeft & strInsert & strRight
strContents = strCurrentLine & strText & vbCrLf
wscript.echo strContents

objFilew.WriteLine strText
Else

objFilew.WriteLine strCurrentLine

End If
Loop

objFile.Close
objFilew.Close


MsgBox "Complete"

[red]"... isn't sanity really just a one trick pony anyway?! I mean, all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you are good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit!" - The Tick[/red]

 

[hazeus]

Wow, I dont understand that code at all but it seems to work!! The only thing I need it to do now is insert the text over the old text instead of indenting and pushing it over.

Thank you so much! I wonder if you happen to know how I can change it to insert the text and overwrite?

 

[EBGreen]

so you need to insert some text starting 3 characters from the end?

[red]"... isn't sanity really just a one trick pony anyway?! I mean, all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you are good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit!" - The Tick[/red]

 

[hazeus]

Right now this script pushes the text over:

The boy has a dog

This Script does this:
The*insert* boy has a dog

What I want:

The*insert* a dog

 

[EBGreen]

So you want to replace the matched text with something else?

[red]"... isn't sanity really just a one trick pony anyway?! I mean, all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you are good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit!" - The Tick[/red]

 

[PHV]

Have a look here:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6wzad2b2.aspx

Hope This Helps, PH.
FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886

 

[hazeus]

I went through the regular expressions syntax... The best I could gather was that I need an "anchor"

I do not understand the regular expression code so I am not sure what to add to get it to "Overtype" instead of pushing the text over

 

[hazeus]

I figured it out, I changed the number of characters it is capturing in my string manipulation

intRight = Len(strCurrentLine) - 3

changed to

intRight = Len(strCurrentLine) - 8

Thank you for all your help... great forum by the way