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 
cant 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

 

[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 isnt good.

Hmm Ill 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

 

[ZeroEffect]

Thanks Ill look into the StringBuilder class.