I wrote an export to CSV file in my vb.net application, and I then exported it into Outlook.
The issue I've got, is that when the CSV file is being written, my code is checking for a comma in the current field, but while doing this, it also mistakes a double space for a comma, or space followed by 'Enter' key being pressed (for multiline textboxes)
An example would be if in the notes section of the customer, there is 4 lines of text, and one ends in a space - The user has then pressed enter to go to the next line, however the program is taking the next line of text and creating a new record for it, as it thinks it's a comma...
What is the reason for this? This means that data has to be super validated (ie checking for no double spaces etc) before it can be exported, which is far too time consuming.
Hopefully this makes sense!
This is the code:
Dim result As Boolean = True
Try
Dim sb As New StringBuilder()
Dim separator As String = ","
Dim group As String = """"
Dim newLine As String = Environment.NewLine
For Each column As DataColumn In dtable.Columns
sb.Append(wrapValue(column.ColumnName, group, separator) & separator)
Next
sb.Append(newLine)
For Each row As DataRow In dtable.Rows
For Each col As DataColumn In dtable.Columns
sb.Append(wrapValue(row(col).ToString(), group, separator) & separator)
Next
sb.Append(newLine)
Next
The code for wrapValue
Function wrapValue(value As String, group As String, separator As String) As String
If value.Contains(separator) Then
If value.Contains(group) Then
value = value.Replace(group, group + group)
End If
value = group & value & group
End If
Return value
End Function
Based on the fact that it's shortening it by 430 lines, I'd suggest it's something to do with the fact you're adding a load of "" before and after the value variable.
If it's removing a value at the start, then it will be removing a " before the first column header. As to why it's importing one record as you mentioned in the comments, I'm not entirely sure, however, I would suggest the issue lies in your wrapValue code.
Can you try changing
value = group & value & group
to
value = value
and see if that changes anything?
Related
I have an issue with trim the string method NOT working completely I have reviewed MS Docs and looked of forums but with no luck... It's probably something simple or some other parameter is missing. This is just a sample,
Please note I need to pick up text before and after #, hence than I was planning to use # as a separator. Trim start # #, Trim End # #. I can't use The last Index or Replace per my understanding they have no direction. But perhaps I am misunderstood MS docs regards to trim Start and End as well...
thanks!
Dim str As String = "this is a #string"
Dim ext As String = str.TrimEnd("#")
MsgBox(ext)
ANSWER:
I found a solution for my problem, if you experience similar please see below:
1st: Trim end will NOT scan for the "character" from the Right as I originally thought it will just remove it from the right.... A weak function I would say:). IndexOf direction ID would be a very simple and helpful. Regards My answer was answered by Andrew, thanks!
Now there is another way around it if you try to split a SINGLE String INTO - QTY based on CHARACTER separation and populate fields accordingly.
Answer is ArrayList. Array List will ID each String so you can avoid repeated populations and etc. After you can use CASE or IF to populate accordingly.
Dim arrList As New ArrayList("this is a # string".Split("#"c)) ' Will build the list of your strings
Dim index As Integer = 1 ' this will help us index the strings 1st, 2nd and etc.
For Each part In arrList 'here we are going thru the list
Select Case index ' Here we are identifying which field we are populating
Case 1 '1st string(split)
MsgBox("1 " & arrList(0) & index) '1st string value left to SPLIT arrList(0).
Case 2 '2nd string(split)
MsgBox("2 " & arrList(1) & index) '2nd string value left to SPLIT arrList(1).
End Select
index += 1 'Here we adding one shift thru strings as we go
Next
Rather than:
Dim str As String = "this is a #string"
Dim ext As String = str.TrimEnd("#")
Try:
Dim str As String = "this is a #string"
Dim ext As String = str.Replace("#", "")
Dim str As String = "this is a #string"
Dim parts = str.Split("#"c)
For Each part in parts
Console.WriteLine($"|{part}|")
Next
Output:
|this is a |
|string|
Maybe there is a better way as we know there are multiple things to do the same thing.
The solution I used is below:
Dim arrList As New ArrayList("this is a # string".Split("#"c)) ' Will build the list of your strings
Dim index As Integer = 1 ' this will help us index the strings 1st, 2nd and etc.
For Each part In arrList 'here we are going thru the list
Select Case index ' Here we are identifying which field we are populating
Case 1 '1st string(split)
MsgBox("1 " & arrList(0) & index) '1st string value left to SPLIT arrList(0).
Case 2 '2nd string(split)
MsgBox("2 " & arrList(1) & index) '2nd string value left to SPLIT arrList(1).
End Select
index += 1 'Here we adding one shift thru strings as we go
Next
I am trying to add indentation to a string, essentially adding 4 spaces in front of each line in the string. The string that I want to add the indentation to is called StringToIndent.
Public Class ModifyPage
Private Sub Button_Test_Click(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs) Handles Button_Test.Click
Dim StringToIndent As String = ("This is the first row
This is the second row
This is the third and final row in MyString")
Dim MySecondString As String = "This is a string in one line."
Dim BothStringsTogether = StringToIndent & Environment.NewLine & MySecondString
Debug.Write(BothStringsTogether)
End Sub
End Class
The current output:
This is the first row
This is the second row
This is the third and final row in MyString
This is a string in one line.
I want the final code (that is indented) to output:
This is the first row
This is the second row
This is the third and final row in MyString
This is a string in one line.
How can this be achieved through code? Is there a formatting option that allows me to add indentation? A method that doesn't require me to loop through a string and adding four spaces for each line would be preferable.
Edit: A way to achieve the expected output is to replace the new line with a new line and then add the indent. However, there must be a more elegant way of doing it?
Code:
Dim StringToIndent As String = ("This is the first row
This is the second row
This is the third and final row in MyString")
Dim indentAmount = 4
Dim indent = New String(" "c, indentAmount)
StringToIndent = indent & StringToIndent.Replace(Environment.NewLine, Environment.NewLine & indent)
Debug.Write(StringToIndent)
Maybe something like:
Dim res as String
Dim parts As String() = StringToIndent.Split(ControlChars.CrLf.ToCharArray)
For Each part As String In parts
res.Append(" ") & part & vbCrLf
Next
In C# you can mark the String as a verbatim string literal by prefixing the literal with the # symbol.
In VB.NET we don't have this option. Instead, a workaround would be to create an XML literal and get the value. Here is an example:
Dim input As String = <element> This is the first row
This is the second row
This is the third and final row in MyString
This is a string in one line.
</element>.Value().ToString()
Debugger.WriteLine(input.ToString())
If the value is not static, e.g. you're getting it from somewhere, then you're forced to iterate through the String in some form. You can either Replace like in your example, do a Split and Join (similar to your example), or you'll need to manually iterate.
The manual iteration could look more elegant using LINQ, but you don't gain anything from it.
The bottom line is that if your String is static then you can use the XML literal example I provided, otherwise if the String is dynamic then your solution is perfectly appropriate.
UPDATE
As Andrew Morton pointed out, multiple line String literals have existed since Visual Studio 2017. The following would produce the same outcome as my XML literal example:
Dim input As String = " This is the first row
This is the second row
This is a string in one line"
Debugger.WriteLine(input)
Using an interpolated string indicated by the $ preceeding the string and the vb constants.
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim s = $"{vbTab}This Is the first row{vbCrLf}{vbTab}This Is the second row{vbCrLf}{vbTab}{vbTab}This Is the third And final row in MyString{vbCrLf}This Is a string in one line."
Debug.Print(s)
End Sub
I have a cell that contains multiple questions and answers and is organised like a CSV. So to get all these questions and answers separated a simple split using the comma as the delimiter should separate this easily.
Unfortunately, there are some values that use the comma as the decimal separator. Is there a way to escape the split for those occurrences?
Fortunately, my data can be split using ", " as separator, but if this wouldn't be the case, would there still be a solution besides manually replacing the decimal delimiter from a comma to a dot?
Example:
"Price: 0,09,Quantity: 12,Sold: Yes"
Using Split("Price: 0,09,Quantity: 12,Sold: Yes",",") would yield:
Price: 0
09
Quantity: 12
Sold: Yes
One possibility, given this test data, is to loop through the array after splitting, and whenever there's no : in the string, add this entry to the previous one.
The function that does this might look like this:
Public Function CleanUpSeparator(celldata As String) As String()
Dim ret() As String
Dim tmp() As String
Dim i As Integer, j As Integer
tmp = Split(celldata, ",")
For i = 0 To UBound(tmp)
If InStr(1, tmp(i), ":") < 1 Then
' Put this value on the previous line, and restore the comma
tmp(i - 1) = tmp(i - 1) & "," & tmp(i)
tmp(i) = ""
End If
Next i
j = 0
ReDim ret(j)
For i = 0 To UBound(tmp)
If tmp(i) <> "" Then
ret(j) = tmp(i)
j = j + 1
ReDim Preserve ret(j)
End If
Next i
ReDim Preserve ret(j - 1)
CleanUpSeparator = ret
End Function
Note that there's room for improvement by making the separator caharacters : and , into parameters, for instance.
I spent the last 24 hours or so puzzling over what I THINK is a completely analogous problem, so I'll share my solution here. Forgive me if I'm wrong about the applicability of my solution to this question. :-)
My Problem: I have a SharePoint list in which teachers (I'm an elementary school technology specialist) enter end-of-year award certificates for me to print. Teachers can enter multiple students' names for a given award, separating each name using a comma. I have a VBA macro in Access that turns each name into a separate record for mail merging. Okay, I lied. That was more of a story. HERE'S the problem: How can teachers add a student name like Hank Williams, Jr. (note the comma) without having the comma cause "Jr." to be interpreted as a separate student in my macro?
The full contents of the (SharePoint exported to Excel) field "Students" are stored within the macro in a variable called strStudentsBeforeSplit, and this string is eventually split with this statement:
strStudents = Split(strStudentsBeforeSplit, ",", -1, vbTextCompare)
So there's the problem, really. The Split function is using a comma as a separator, but poor student Hank Williams, Jr. has a comma in his name. What to do?
I spent a long time trying to figure out how to escape the comma. If this is possible, I never figured it out.
Lots of forum posts suggested using a different character as the separator. That's okay, I guess, but here's the solution I came up with:
Replace only the special commas preceding "Jr" with a different, uncommon character BEFORE the Split function runs.
Swap back to the commas after Split runs.
That's really the end of my post, but here are the lines from my macro that accomplish step 1. This may or may not be of interest because it really just deals with the minutiae of making the swap. Note that the code handles several different (mostly wrong) ways my teachers might type the "Jr" part of the name.
'Dealing with the comma before Jr. This will handle ", Jr." and ", Jr" and " Jr." and " Jr".
'Replaces the comma with ~ because commas are used to separate fields in Split function below.
'Will swap ~ back to comma later in UpdateQ_Comma_for_Jr query.
strStudentsBeforeSplit = Replace(strStudentsBeforeSplit, "Jr", "~ Jr.") 'Every Jr gets this treatment regardless of what else is around it.
'Note that because of previous Replace functions a few lines prior, the space between the comma and Jr will have been removed. This adds it back.
strStudentsBeforeSplit = Replace(strStudentsBeforeSplit, ",~ Jr", "~ Jr") 'If teacher had added a comma, strip it.
strStudentsBeforeSplit = Replace(strStudentsBeforeSplit, " ~ Jr", "~ Jr") 'In cases when teacher added Jr but no comma, remove the (now extra)...
'...space that was before Jr.
I'm trying to extract my parameters from my SQL query to build my xml for an SSRS report. I want to be able to copy/paste my SQL into Excel, look through the code and find all instances of '#' and the appropriate parameter attached to it. These paramaters will ultimately be copied and pasted to another sheet for further use. So for example:
where DateField between #FromDate and #ToDate
and (BalanceFiled between #BalanceFrom and #BalanceTo
OR BalancdField = #BalanceFrom)
I know I can use Instr to find the starting position of the first '#' in a line but how then do I go about extracting the rest of the parameter name (which varies) and also, in the first two lines of the example, finding the second parameter and extracting it's variable lenght? I've also tried using the .Find method which I've been able to copy the whole line over but not just the parameters.
I might approach this problem like so:
Remove characters that are not surrounded by spaces, but do not
belong. In your example, the parentheses need to be removed.
Split the text using the space as a delimiter.
For each element in the split array, check the first character.
If it is "#", then the parameter is found, and it is the entire value in that part of the array.
My user-defined function looks something like this:
Public Function GetParameters(ByRef rsSQL As String) As String
Dim sWords() As String
Dim s As Variant
Dim sResult As String
'remove parentheses and split at space
sWords = Split(Replace(Replace(rsSQL, ")", ""), "(", ""), " ")
'find parameters
For Each s In sWords
If Left$(s, 1) = "#" Then
sResult = sResult & s & ", "
End If
Next s
'remove extra comma from list
If sResult <> "" Then
sResult = Left$(sResult, Len(sResult) - 2)
End If
GetParameters = sResult
End Function
I have a frustrating problem. I have a string containg other characters that are not in this list (check link). My string represents a SQL Query.
This is an example of what my string can contain: INSERT INTO test (description) VALUES ('≤ ≥ >= <=')
When I check the database, the row is inserted successfully, but the characters "≤" and "≥" are replaced with "=" character.
In the database the string in description column looks like "= = >= <=".
For the most characters I can get a character code. I googled a character code for those two symbols, but I didn't find one. My goal is to check if my string contains this two characters , and afterwards replace them with ">=" and "<="
===Later Edit===
I have tried to check every character in a for loop;
tmp = Mid$(str, i, 1)
tmp will have the value "=" when my for loop reaches the "≤" character, so Excel cannot read this "≤" character in a VB string, then when I'm checking for character code I get the code for "=" (Chr(61))
Are you able to figure out what the character codes for both "≤" and "≥" in your database character set are? if so then maybe try replacing both characters in your query string with chrw(character_code).
I have just tested something along the lines of what you are trying to do using Excel as my database - and it looks to work fine.
Edit: assuming you are still stuck and looking for assistance here - could you confirm what database you are working with, and any type information setting for the "description" field you are looking to insert your string into?
Edit2: I am not familiar with SQL server, but isn't your "description" field set up to be of a certain data type? if so what is it and does it support unicode characters? ncharvar, nchar seem to be examples of sql server data types that support Unicode.
It sounds like you may also want to try and add an "N" prefix to the value in your query string - see
Do I have use the prefix N in the "insert into" statement for unicode? &
how to insert unicode text to SQL Server from query window
Edit3: varchar won't qualify for proper rendering of Unicode - see here What is the difference between varchar and nvarchar?. Can you switch to nvarchar? as mentionned above, you may also want to prefix the values in your query string with 'N' for full effect
Edit4: I can't speak much more about sqlserver, but what you are looking at here is how VBA displays the character, not at how it actually stores it in memory - which is the bottom line. VBA won't display "≤" properly since it doesn't support the Unicode character set. However, it may - and it does - store the binary representation correctly.
For any evidence of this, just try and paste back the character to another cell in Excel from VBA, and you will retrieve the original character - or look at the binary representation in VBA:
Sub test()
Dim s As String
Dim B() As Byte
'8804 is "≤" character in Excel character set
s = ChrW(8804)
'Assign memory representation of s to byte array B
B = s
'This loop prints "100" and "34", respectively the low and high bytes of s coding in memory
'representing binary value 0010 0010 0110 0100 ie 8804
For i = LBound(B) To UBound(B)
Debug.Print B(i)
Next i
'This prints "=" because VBA can not render character code 8804 properly
Debug.Print s
End Sub
If I copy your text INSERT INTO test (description) VALUES ('≤ ≥ >= <=') and paste it into the VBA editor, it becomes INSERT INTO test (description) VALUES ('= = >= <=').
If I paste that text into a Excel cell or an Access table's text field, it pastes "correctly".
This seems to be a matter of character code supported, and I suggest you have a look at this SO question.
But where in you program does that string come from, since it cannot be typed in VBA ??
Edit: I jus gave it a try with the below code, and it works like a charm for transferring your exotic characters from the worksheet to a table !
Sub test1()
Dim db As Object, rs As Object, cn As Object
Set cn = CreateObject("DAO.DBEngine.120")
Set db = cn.OpenDatabase("P:\Database1.accdb")
Set rs = db.OpenRecordset("table1")
With rs
.addnew
.Fields(0) = Range("d5").Value
.Update
End With
End Sub