Quick question, I've got all of these statically set Public Type variables in my macro code. These are supposed to represent the values of an INI file. The way I would like it to be is that the code is all dynamic, based on what's in the INI file. So I don't need to manually update both the INI file and the code behind.
This is an outtake of the code the way it is now. This is inside it's own module:
Public Type Fields
Firstname as String
Lastname as String
Username as String
End Type
I was thinking of reading the entire section of the INI file using ReadIniSection, but it seems as though it's not possible to do this within a Public Type. Am I correct? Could it be possible to get around this somehow?
Use a Scripting.Dictionary object (set a reference to the Scripting.Runtime library).
To store:
oDict.Add keyName, keyValue
To read back:
oDict(keyName)
That's assuming you have unique key names with single values.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x4k5wbx4%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
Tim
It is also possible (but maybe not advisable) to add code to a module programatically. Since VBA does not support reflection, this is the only type of "dynamic" coding there is in the language. This is useful in a pinch.
See the snippet below. The addCode sub takes a standard module's name, a Type's name, and an array containing the definition of the fields.
It first tries to delete the existing Type with the same name, and then adds the new type definition in.
Sub TestAdd()
Dim FieldArray()
FieldArray = Array( _
"Firstname As String", _
"Lastname As String", _
"Username As String" _
)
AddCode "Module2", "Fields", FieldArray
End Sub
Sub AddCode(ModuleName As String, TypeName As String, FieldArray())
Dim StartLine As Long, EndLine As Long, StartColumn As Long, EndColumn As Long, _
CodeToInsert As String
StartLine = 1: StartColumn = -1
EndLine = -1: EndColumn = -1
'Find the old type definition and remove it.
With Application.VBE.ActiveVBProject.VBComponents(ModuleName).CodeModule
'Search for the start of the type definition
If .Find("Public Type " & TypeName, StartLine, StartColumn, EndLine, EndColumn, True) Then
EndLine = EndLine + 1: StartColumn = -1: EndLine = -1: EndColumn = -1
'Found the start, now find the end of the type definition
If .Find("End Type", EndLine, StartColumn, EndLine, EndColumn, True) Then
.DeleteLines StartLine, (EndLine - StartLine) + 1
End If
End If
CodeToInsert = _
"Public Type " & TypeName & vbCrLf & _
Join(FieldArray, vbCrLf) & vbCrLf & _
"End Type"
.InsertLines StartLine, CodeToInsert
End With
End Sub
Related
Maybe I'm overlooking the obvious, but I cant figure out how to deal with a single result in an array.
I'm using Ken Getz ahtCommonFileOpenSave API in VBA to enable selecting multiple files, using the following code.
Private Sub btn_openfiles_Click()
Dim strFilter As String
Dim strInputFileName As String
Dim strFiles() As String
Dim a As Long
strFilter = ahtAddFilterItem(strFilter, "Images (*.PNG)", "*.PNG")
strFiles = ahtCommonFileOpenSave( _
Filter:=strFilter, _
OpenFile:=True, _
InitialDir:="T:\DTP\Programs\Default\", _
DialogTitle:="Please select an input file...", _
Flags:=ahtOFN_EXPLORER + ahtOFN_ALLOWMULTISELECT)
If IsArray(strFiles) Then
For a = 0 To UBound(strFiles)
Me.test_filenames = Me.test_filenames & strFiles(a) & vbCrLf
Next a
Else
Me.test_filenames = strFiles
End If
End Sub
I know that the result is an array, because I'm setting the ahtOFN_ALLOWMULTISELECT flag. When multiple files are selected, this goes well. But if only one file is selected, an
error 13 is thrown (type mismatch on strFiles)
because the return value of ahtCommonFileOpenSave is not an array.
I may be able to force an Array type just by adding a dummy value to the array produced by ahtCommonFileOpenSave and disregard this when processing the file names in the form, but maybe there is a better solution. Anyone have a suggestion?
As I already mentioned, overlooking the obvious. Changing the variable type into variant did the trick . ahtComminFileOpenSave returns the complete array when multiple files are selected and is always a Variant type. Luuk's suggestion works too (a variant type is used by default when the variable type is omitted).
The corrected (and amended) code is like this and works like a charm!
Private Sub btn_openfiles_Click()
Dim strFilter As String
Dim strInputFileName As String
Dim varFiles As Variant
Dim a As Long
strFilter = ahtAddFilterItem(strFilter, "Images (*.PNG)", "*.PNG")
Me.test_filenames = ""
varFiles = ahtCommonFileOpenSave( _
Filter:=strFilter, _
OpenFile:=True, _
InitialDir:="T:\DTP\Programs\Default\", _
DialogTitle:="Please select an input file...", _
Flags:=ahtOFN_EXPLORER + ahtOFN_ALLOWMULTISELECT)
If IsArray(varFiles) Then
For a = 0 To UBound(varFiles)
Me.test_filenames = Me.test_filenames & varFiles(a) & vbCrLf
Next a
Else
Me.test_filenames = varFiles
End If
End Sub
Task:
My goal is to find all numbered lines in procedures of my Code Modules.
The CodeModule.Find method can be used to check for search terms (target parameter).
Syntax:
object.Find(target, startline, startcol, endline, endcol [, wholeword] [, matchcase] [, patternsearch])
The referring help site https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa443952(v=vs.60).aspx states:
parameter patternsearch: Optional. A Boolean value specifying whether or not the target string is a regular expression pattern.
If True, the target string is a regular expression pattern. False is the default.
As explained above the find method allows a regex pattern search, which I would like to use in order to identify numbered lines in a precise way:
digits followed by a tab. The example below therefore defines a search string s and sets the last parameter PatternSearch in the .Find method to True.
Problem
AFAIK a valid regex definition could be
s = "[0-9]{1,4}[ \t]"
but that doesn't show anything, not even an error.
In order to show at least any results, I defined the search term
s = "[0-9]*[ \t]*)"
in the calling example procedure ListNumberedLines showing erratic results.
Question
Is there any possibility to use a valid regex patternsearch in the CodeModule.Find method?
Example code
Option Explicit
' ==============
' Example Search
' ==============
Sub ListNumberedLines()
' Declare search pattern string s
Dim S As String
10 S = "[0-9]*[ \t]*)"
20 Debug.Print "Search Term: " & S
30 Call findWordInModules(S)
End Sub
Public Sub findWordInModules(ByVal sSearchTerm As String)
' Purpose: find modules ('components') with lines containing a search term
' Method: .CodeModule.Find with last parameter patternsearch set to True
' Based on https://www.devhut.net/2016/02/24/vba-find-term-in-vba-modulescode/
' VBComponent requires reference to Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Extensibility
' or keep it as is and use Late Binding instead
' Declare module variable oComponent
Dim oComponent As Object 'VBComponent
For Each oComponent In Application.VBE.ActiveVBProject.VBComponents
If oComponent.CodeModule.Find(sSearchTerm, 1, 1, -1, -1, False, False, True) = True Then
Debug.Print "Module: " & oComponent.Name 'Name of the current module in which the term was found (at least once)
'Need to execute a recursive listing of where it is found in the module since it could be found more than once
Call listLinesinModuleWhereFound(oComponent, sSearchTerm)
End If
Next oComponent
End Sub
Sub listLinesinModuleWhereFound(ByVal oComponent As Object, ByVal sSearchTerm As String)
' Purpose: list module lines containing a search term
' Method: .CodeModule.Find with last parameter patternsearch set to True
Dim lTotalNoLines As Long 'total number of lines within the module being examined
Dim lLineNo As Long 'will return the line no where the term is found
lLineNo = 1
With oComponent ' Module
lTotalNoLines = .CodeModule.CountOfLines
Do While .CodeModule.Find(sSearchTerm, lLineNo, 1, -1, -1, False, False, True) = True
Debug.Print vbTab & "Zl. " & lLineNo & "|" & _
Trim(.CodeModule.Lines(lLineNo, 1)) 'Remove any padding spaces
lLineNo = lLineNo + 1 'Restart the search at the next line looking for the next occurence
Loop
End With
End Sub
As #MatsMug says, parsing VBA with Regex is hard impossible, but line-numbers are a simpler case, and should be findable with regex alone.
Fortunately, line numbers can only appear within a procedure body (including before the End Sub/Function/Property statement), so we know they'll never be the first line of your code.
Unfortunately, you can prefix a line-label with 0 or more line continuations:
Sub Foo()
_
_
10 Beep
End Sub
Furthermore, a line number isn't always followed by a space - it can be followed by an instruction separator, giving the line-number the appearance of a line-label:
Sub foo()
10: Beep
End Sub
And if you're code is evil, you might encounter a negative line-number (entered by using hex notation - which VBE dutifully pretty prints back to the code-pane with a leading space and a negative number):
Sub foo()
10 Beep
-1 Beep
End Sub
And we also need to be able to identify numbers that appear on a continued line, that aren't line-numbers:
Sub foo()
Debug.Print _
5 & "is not a line-number"
End Sub
So, here's some evil line-numbering, with a mix of all of those edge-cases:
Option Explicit
Sub foo()
5: Beep
_
_
_
10 Beep
20 _
'Debug.Print _
30
50: Beep
40 Beep
_
-1 _
Beep 'The "-1" line number is achieved by entering "&HFFFFFFFF"
Debug.Print _
2 & "is not a line-number"
60 End Sub
And here's some regex that identifies the line-numbers:
(?<! _)\n( _\n)* ?(?<line_number>(?:\-)?\d+)[: ]
And here's a syntax highlight from regex101:
For the longest time, Rubberduck was struggling with properly/formally parsing line numbers - our work-around was to remove them (replacing them with spaces) before feeding the code module contents to our parser.
Recently we've managed to formally define line numbers:
// lineNumberLabel should actually be "statement-label" according to MS VBAL but they only allow lineNumberLabels:
// A <statement-label> that occurs as the first element of a <list-or-label> element has the effect
// as if the <statement-label> was replaced with a <goto-statement> containing the same
// <statement-label>. This <goto-statement> takes the place of <line-number-label> in
// <statement-list>.
listOrLabel :
lineNumberLabel (whiteSpace? COLON whiteSpace? sameLineStatement?)*
| (COLON whiteSpace?)? sameLineStatement (whiteSpace? COLON whiteSpace? sameLineStatement?)*
;
sameLineStatement : blockStmt;
And lineNumberLabel is defined as:
//Statement labels can only appear at the start of a line.
statementLabelDefinition : {_input.La(-1) == NEWLINE}? (combinedLabels | identifierStatementLabel | standaloneLineNumberLabel);
identifierStatementLabel : unrestrictedIdentifier whiteSpace? COLON;
standaloneLineNumberLabel :
lineNumberLabel whiteSpace? COLON
| lineNumberLabel;
combinedLabels : lineNumberLabel whiteSpace identifierStatementLabel;
lineNumberLabel : numberLiteral;
(full Antlr4 grammar here)
Notice the predicate {_input.La(-1) == NEWLINE}?, which force the parser rule to only match a statementLabelDefinition at the start of a line - a logical line of code.
You see VBA code has physical code lines, like what you're getting from the CodeModule's contents. But VBA code also has a concept of logical code lines, and it turns out that is all the parser cares about.
This would trip any typical regex:
Sub DoSomething()
Debug.Print _
42
End Sub
There's only 1 logical line of code between the signature and the End Sub token, but a simple Find will happily consider that 42 as a "line number" ...which it isn't - it's the argument passed to Debug.Print, in the same instruction, on the same logical code line, but on the next physical code line.
And you can't be dealing with logical code lines without first pre-processing your input, to take line continuation tokens into account.
And in order to do that, you need to actually parse the instructions you're seeing - at least know where they start and where they end... and that's no small undertaking! see ThunderFrame's answer
The VBIDE API is extremely limited, and won't be helpful for that.
TL;DR: You can't parse VBA code with regular expressions alone. So, nope. Sorry! you need a much more complex regex pattern than that - see ThunderFrame's answer.
Conclusion regarding CodeModule.Find via search pattern
Firstly, CodeModule.Find doesn't help via search pattern and its possible use is intransparent.
I agree that the VBIDE API is extremely limited and that there exist excellent professional tools which I highly recommand for any programmer :-)
Consequence: Work around via XML
Secondly I prefer household remedies if possible, so I tried to find an alternative solution using only the helpful parts of VBIDE.
Method
That is why I tried a simple xml conversation of the CodeModule.Lines allowing a flexible search within logical lines.
Instead of using regular expressions in requesting the xml data, I demonstrate a method to find leading numbers via a well defined XPath search (loop thru node list),
thus resolving most problems shown by #ThunderFrame. The search string in function showErls is defined as "line[substring(translate(.,'0123456789','¹¹¹¹¹¹¹¹¹¹'),1,1)="¹"]"
Furthermore function 'lineNumber' returns the logical line number within the module.
Note: To keep it simple, the search is restrained to one module only (user defined constant MYMODULE) and code avoids any regex.
Work around code - main sub
Option Explicit
' ==========================================
' User defined name of module to be analyzed
' ==========================================
Const MYMODULE = "modThunderFrame" ' << change to existing module name or userform
' Declare xml file as object
Dim xCMods As Object ' Late Binding; instead of Early Bd: Dim xCMods As MSXML2.DOMDocument6
Public Sub TestLineNumbers()
' =================
' A. Load/refresh code into xml
' =================
' set xml into memory - contains code module(s) lines
Set xCMods = CreateObject("MSXML2.Domdocument.6.0") ' L.Bd.; instead of E.Bd: Set xCMods = New MSXML2.DOMDocument60
xCMods.async = False
xCMods.validateOnParse = False
' read in user defined code module and load xml, if failed show error message
refreshCM MYMODULE
If xCMods Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
' ======================
' B. search line numbers
' ======================
showERLs
' =============================
' C. Save xml if needed
' =============================
' xCMods.Save ThisWorkbook.Path & "\VBE(" & MYMODULE & ").xml"
' MsgBox "Successfully exported Excel data to " & ThisWorkbook.Path & "\VBE(" & MYMODULE & ").XML!", _
' vbInformation, "Module " & MYMODULE & " to xml"
' =================
' D. terminate xml
' =================
Set xCMods = Nothing
End Sub
Sub procedures
Private Sub showERLs()
' Purpose: [B.] declare XPath search string and define special translate character
Dim s As String
Dim S1 As String: S1 = Chr(185) ' superior number 1 (hex B9) replaces any digit
' declare node and node list
Dim line As Object
Dim lines As Object
' define XPath search string for first digit in line (usual case)
s = "line[substring(translate(.,'0123456789','" & String(10, S1) & "'),1,1)=""" & _
S1 & _
"""]"
' start debugging
Debug.Print "**search string=""" & s & """" & vbNewLine & String(50, "-")
Debug.Print "Line #|Line Content" & vbNewLine & String(50, "-"); ""
' set node list
Set lines = xCMods.DocumentElement.SelectNodes(s)
' -------------------
' loop thru node list
' -------------------
For Each line In lines
Debug.Print Format(lineNumber(line), "00000") & "|" & line.Text ' return logical line number plus line content
Next line
End Sub
Private Sub refreshCM(sModName As String)
' Purpose: [A.] load xml string via LoadXML method
Dim sErrTxt As String
Dim line As Object
Dim lines As Object
Dim xpe As Object
Dim s As String ' xpath expression
Dim pos As Integer ' position of line number prefix
' ======================================
' 1. Read code module lines and load xml
' ======================================
If Not xCMods.LoadXML(readCM(sModName)) Then
' set ParseError object
Set xpe = xCMods.parseError
With xpe
sErrTxt = sErrTxt & vbNewLine & String(20, "-") & vbNewLine & _
"Loading Error No " & .ErrorCode & " of xml file " & vbCrLf & _
Replace(" " & Replace(.URL, "file:///", "") & " ", " ", "[No file found]") & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
xpe.reason & vbCrLf & _
"Source Text: " & .srcText & vbCrLf & _
"char?: " & """" & Mid(.srcText, .linepos, 1) & """" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"Line no: " & .line & vbCrLf & _
"Line pos: " & .linepos & vbCrLf & _
"File pos.: " & .filepos & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
End With
MsgBox sErrTxt, vbExclamation, "XML Loading Error"
Set xCMods = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If
' 2. resolve hex input problem of negative line numbers with leading space (thx #Thunderframe)
s = "line"
Set lines = xCMods.DocumentElement.SelectNodes(s)
' loop thru all logical lines
For Each line In lines
pos = ErlPosInLine(line.Text)
If pos <= Len(line.Text) Then
' to do: add attribute to line node, if wanted
' correct line content
line.Text = Mid(line.Text, pos)
End If
Next
End Sub
Private Function lineNumber(node As Object) As Long
' Purpose: [B.] return logical line number within code module lines
' Param.: IXMLDomNode
' Method: XPath via preceding-sibling count plus one
Dim tag As String: tag = "line"
lineNumber = node.SelectNodes("preceding-sibling::" & tag).Length + 1
End Function
Private Function readCM(Optional modName = "*") As String
' Purpose: return code module line string (VBIDE) of a user defined module to be read into xml
' Call: called from [A.] refreshCM
' xCMods.LoadXML(readCM(sModName))
' Declare variable
Dim s As String
Dim md As CodeModule
If modName = "*" Then Exit Function
On Error GoTo OOPS
' get code module lines into string
Set md = Application.VBE.ActiveVBProject.VBComponents(modName).CodeModule ' MSAccess: Modules("modVBELines")
' change to xml tags
s = getTags(md.lines(1, md.CountOfLines))
' return
readCM = s
OOPS:
End Function
Private Function getTags(ByVal s As String, Optional mode = False) As String
' Purpose: prepares xml string to be loaded
' define constant
Const HEAD = "<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?>" & vbCrLf & "<cm>" & vbCrLf
' 1. change tag characters
s = Replace(Replace(s, "<", "<"), ">", ">")
' 2. change special characters (ampersand)
s = Replace(s, "&", "&")
' 3. change "_" points
s = Replace(s, "_" & vbCrLf, Chr(133) & vbLf)
' 4. define logical line entities
If Right(s, 2) = vbCrLf Then s = Left(s, Len(s) - 2)
s = HEAD & " <line>" & Replace(s, vbCrLf, "</line>" & vbCrLf & " <line>") & "</line>" & vbCrLf & "</cm>"
' debug xml tags if second function parameter is true (mode = True)
If mode Then Debug.Print s
' return
getTags = s
End Function
Sub testErlPosInLine()
' Purpose: Test Thunderframe's problem with ERL prefixes (underscores, " ",..) and hex inputs
Dim s As String
s = " _" & vbLf & " -1 xx"
MsgBox "|" & Mid(s, ErlPosInLine(s)) & "|" & vbNewLine & _
"prefix = |" & Mid(s, 1, ErlPosInLine(s) - 1) & "|"
End Sub
Private Function ErlPosInLine(ByVal s As String) As Integer
' Purpose: remove prefix (underscore, tab, " ",.. ) from numbered line
' cf: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/42716936/vba-to-remove-numbers-from-start-of-string-cell
Dim i As Long
For i = 1 To Len(s) ' loop each char
Select Case Mid$(s, i, 1) ' examine current char
Case " " ' permitted chars
Case "_"
Case vbLf, Chr(133), Chr(34)
Case "0" To "9": Exit For ' cut off point
Case Else: Exit For ' i is the cut off point
End Select
Next
If Mid$(s, i, 1) = "-" And Len(s) > 1 Then
If IsNumeric(Mid$(s, i + 1, 1)) Then i = i + 1
End If
' return
ErlPosInLine = i
' debug.print Mid$(s, i) '//strip lead
End Function
Working in Excel VBA, I have a class module where I define my class 'Marker'. One of the properties of my class is TextLine(), which is an array that holds up to 5 strings. I have defined the two methods below in my class module. In another (regular) module, I fill markerArr() with my custom Marker objects. Loading each object's properties with data at each array index is working fine... However, after loading data into the object at each index, I try to use markerArr(count).ProcessLines but receive a type mismatch error. Since ProcessLines is a public sub in my class module, and markerArr(count) contains a Marker object, I can't seem to understand why this error is occurring... Am I overlooking something obvious?
'Serial number replacement processing function
Public Sub ProcessLines()
Dim strSerial As String
Dim toggle As Boolean
toggle = False
Dim i As Integer
For i = 0 To 4
If Trim(m_TxtLines(i)) <> "" Then
'Add linefeed char to non-empty text lines
m_TxtLines(i) = m_TxtLines(i) & Chr(10)
'Detect if it is a serialized line
If InStr(1, m_TxtLines(i), "XXXXXX-YYY") > 0 Then
m_Serial(i) = True
toggle = True
End If
End If
Next
'When at least one line on the marker is serialized, create and replace serial text
If toggle = True Then
'Only prompt for input once
If startSerNo < 1 And Num_Sers < 1 Then
startSerNo = InputBox("Enter the serial number to start printing at." & Chr(10) & _
"Entering 1 will result in -001, entering 12 will result in -012, etc.", "Starting Serial #", "1")
Num_Sers = InputBox("Enter the amount of serializations to perform." & Chr(10) & _
"This will control how many copies of the entire marker set are printed.", "Total Serializations", "1")
End If
strSerial = CreateSerial(startSerNo)
Dim j As Integer
For j = 0 To 4
If m_Serial(j) Then
m_TxtLines(j) = Replace(m_TxtLines(j), "XXXXXX-YYY", strSerial)
End If
Next
End If
End Sub
'Creates the string to replace XXXXXX-YYY by concatenating the SFC# with the starting serial number
Private Function CreateSerial(ByVal startNum As Integer)
Dim temp
temp = SFC_Num
Select Case Len(CStr(startNum))
Case 1
temp = temp & "-00" & startNum
Case 2
temp = temp & "-0" & startNum
Case 3
temp = temp & "-" & startNum
Case Else
temp = temp & "-001"
End Select
CreateSerial = temp
End Function
Your CreateSerial function takes an integer as a parameter, but you are attempting to pass a string. I've pointed out some problems:
If startSerNo < 1 And Num_Sers < 1 Then 'Here I assume, you have these semi-globals as a variant - you are using numeric comparison here
startSerNo = InputBox("Enter the serial number to start printing at." & Chr(10) & _
"Entering 1 will result in -001, entering 12 will result in -012, etc.", "Starting Serial #", "1") 'Here startSerNo is returned as a string from the inputbox
Num_Sers = InputBox("Enter the amount of serializations to perform." & Chr(10) & _
"This will control how many copies of the entire marker set are printed.", "Total Serializations", "1") 'here Num_Sers becomes a String too
End If
strSerial = CreateSerial(startSerNo) 'here you are passing a String to the CreateSerial function. Either pass an integer, or allow a variant as parameter to CreateSerial
'......more code.....
Private Function CreateSerial(ByVal startNum As Integer)
What is the VBA string interpolation syntax? Does it exist?
I would to to use Excel VBA to format a string.
I have a variable foo that I want to put in a string for a range.
Dim row as Long
row = 1
myString = "$row:$row"
I would like the $row in the string to be interpolated as "1"
You could also build a custom Format function.
Public Function Format(ParamArray arr() As Variant) As String
Dim i As Long
Dim temp As String
temp = CStr(arr(0))
For i = 1 To UBound(arr)
temp = Replace(temp, "{" & i - 1 & "}", CStr(arr(i)))
Next
Format = temp
End Function
The usage is similar to C# except that you can't directly reference variables in the string. E.g. Format("This will {not} work") but Format("This {0} work", "will").
Public Sub Test()
Dim s As String
s = "Hello"
Debug.Print Format("{0}, {1}!", s, "World")
End Sub
Prints out Hello, World! to the Immediate Window.
This works well enough, I believe.
Dim row as Long
Dim s as String
row = 1
s = "$" & row & ":$" & row
Unless you want something similar to Python's or C#'s {} notation, this is the standard way of doing it.
Using Key\Value Pairs
Another alternative to mimic String interpolation is to pass in key\value pairs as a ParamArray and replace the keys accordingly.
One note is that an error should be raised if there are not an even number of elements.
' Returns a string that replaced special keys with its associated pair value.
Public Function Inject(ByVal source As String, ParamArray keyValuePairs() As Variant) As String
If (UBound(keyValuePairs) - LBound(keyValuePairs) + 1) Mod 2 <> 0 Then
Err.Raise 5, "Inject", "Invalid parameters: expecting key/value pairs, but received an odd number of arguments."
End If
Inject = source
' Replace {key} with the pairing value.
Dim index As Long
For index = LBound(keyValuePairs) To UBound(keyValuePairs) Step 2
Inject = Replace(Inject, "{" & keyValuePairs(index) & "}", keyValuePairs(index + 1), , , vbTextCompare)
Next index
End Function
Simple Example
Here is a simple example that shows how to implement it.
Private Sub testingInject()
Const name As String = "Robert"
Const age As String = 31
Debug.Print Inject("Hello, {name}! You are {age} years old!", "name", name, "age", age)
'~> Hello, Robert! You are 31 years old!
End Sub
Although this may add a few extra strings, in my opinion, this makes it much easier to read long strings.
See the same simple example using concatenation:
Debug.Print "Hello, " & name & "! You are " & age & " years old!"
Using Scripting.Dicitionary
Really, a Scripting.Dictionary would be perfect for this since they are nothing but key/value pairs. It would be a simple adjustment to my code above, just take in a Dictionary as the parameter and make sure the keys match.
Public Function Inject(ByVal source As String, ByVal data As Scripting.Dictionary) As String
Inject = source
Dim key As Variant
For Each key In data.Keys
Inject = Replace(Inject, "{" & key & "}", data(key))
Next key
End Function
Dictionary example
And the example of using it for dictionaries:
Private Sub testingInject()
Dim person As New Scripting.Dictionary
person("name") = "Robert"
person("age") = 31
Debug.Print Inject("Hello, {name}! You are {age} years old!", person)
'~> Hello, Robert! You are 31 years old!
End Sub
Additional Considerations
Collections sound like they would be nice as well, but there is no way of accessing the keys. It would probably get messier that way.
If using the Dictionary method you might create a simple factory function for easily creating Dictionaries. You can find an example of that on my Github Library Page.
To mimic function overloading to give you all the different ways you could create a main Inject function and run a select statement within that.
Here is all the code needed to do that if need be:
Public Function Inject(ByVal source As String, ParamArray data() As Variant) As String
Dim firstElement As Variant
assign firstElement, data(LBound(data))
Inject = InjectCharacters(source)
Select Case True
Case TypeName(firstElement) = "Dictionary"
Inject = InjectDictionary(Inject, firstElement)
Case InStr(source, "{0}") > 0
Inject = injectIndexes(Inject, CVar(data))
Case (UBound(data) - LBound(data) + 1) Mod 2 = 0
Inject = InjectKeyValuePairs(Inject, CVar(data))
Case Else
Err.Raise 5, "Inject", "Invalid parameters: expecting key/value pairs or Dictionary or an {0} element."
End Select
End Function
Private Function injectIndexes(ByVal source As String, ByVal data As Variant)
injectIndexes = source
Dim index As Long
For index = LBound(data) To UBound(data)
injectIndexes = Replace(injectIndexes, "{" & index & "}", data(index))
Next index
End Function
Private Function InjectKeyValuePairs(ByVal source As String, ByVal keyValuePairs As Variant)
InjectKeyValuePairs = source
Dim index As Long
For index = LBound(keyValuePairs) To UBound(keyValuePairs) Step 2
InjectKeyValuePairs = Replace(InjectKeyValuePairs, "{" & keyValuePairs(index) & "}", keyValuePairs(index + 1))
Next index
End Function
Private Function InjectDictionary(ByVal source As String, ByVal data As Scripting.Dictionary) As String
InjectDictionary = source
Dim key As Variant
For Each key In data.Keys
InjectDictionary = Replace(InjectDictionary, "{" & key & "}", data(key))
Next key
End Function
' QUICK TOOL TO EITHER SET OR LET DEPENDING ON IF ELEMENT IS AN OBJECT
Private Function assign(ByRef variable As Variant, ByVal value As Variant)
If IsObject(value) Then
Set variable = value
Else
Let variable = value
End If
End Function
End Function
Private Function InjectCharacters(ByVal source As String) As String
InjectCharacters = source
Dim keyValuePairs As Variant
keyValuePairs = Array("n", vbNewLine, "t", vbTab, "r", vbCr, "f", vbLf)
If (UBound(keyValuePairs) - LBound(keyValuePairs) + 1) Mod 2 <> 0 Then
Err.Raise 5, "Inject", "Invalid variable: expecting key/value pairs, but received an odd number of arguments."
End If
Dim RegEx As Object
Set RegEx = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
RegEx.Global = True
' Replace is ran twice since it is possible for back to back patterns.
Dim index As Long
For index = LBound(keyValuePairs) To UBound(keyValuePairs) Step 2
RegEx.Pattern = "((?:^|[^\\])(?:\\{2})*)(?:\\" & keyValuePairs(index) & ")+"
InjectCharacters = RegEx.Replace(InjectCharacters, "$1" & keyValuePairs(index + 1))
InjectCharacters = RegEx.Replace(InjectCharacters, "$1" & keyValuePairs(index + 1))
Next index
End Function
I have a library function SPrintF() which should do what you need.
It replaces occurrences of %s in the supplied string with an extensible number of parameters, using VBA's ParamArray() feature.
Usage:
SPrintF("%s:%s", 1, 1) => "1:1"
SPrintF("Property %s added at %s on %s", "88 High St, Clapham", Time, Date) => ""Property 88 High St, Clapham added at 11:30:27 on 25/07/2019"
Function SprintF(strInput As String, ParamArray varSubstitutions() As Variant) As String
'Formatted string print: replaces all occurrences of %s in input with substitutions
Dim i As Long
Dim s As String
s = strInput
For i = 0 To UBound(varSubstitutions)
s = Replace(s, "%s", varSubstitutions(i), , 1)
Next
SprintF = s
End Function
Just to add as a footnote, the idea for this was inspired by the C language printf function.
I use a similar code to that of #natancodes except that I use regex to replace the occurances and allow the user to specifiy description for the placeholders. This is useful when you have a big table (like in Access) with many strings or translations so that you still know what each number means.
Function Format(ByVal Source As String, ParamArray Replacements() As Variant) As String
Dim Replacement As Variant
Dim i As Long
For i = 0 To UBound(Replacements)
Dim rx As New RegExp
With rx
.Pattern = "{" & i & "(?::(.+?))?}"
.IgnoreCase = True
.Global = True
End With
Select Case VarType(Replacements(i))
Case vbObject
If Replacements(i) Is Nothing Then
Dim Matches As MatchCollection
Set Matches = rx.Execute(Source)
If Matches.Count = 1 Then
Dim Items As SubMatches: Set Items = Matches(0).SubMatches
Dim Default As String: Default = Items(0)
Source = rx.Replace(Source, Default)
End If
End If
Case vbString
Source = rx.Replace(Source, CStr(Replacements(i)))
End Select
Next
Format = Source
End Function
Sub TestFormat()
Debug.Print Format("{0:Hi}, {1:space}!", Nothing, "World")
End Sub
I'm writing a macro in Visual Basic for PowerPoint 2010. I'd like to initialize a really big list of strings like:
big_ol_array = Array( _
"string1", _
"string2", _
"string3", _
"string4" , _
.....
"string9999" _
)
...but I get the "Too many line continuations" error in the editor. When I try to just initialize the big array with no line breaks, the VB editor can't handle such a long line (1000+) characters.
Does anyone know a good way to initialize a huge list of strings in VB?
Thanks in advance!
I don't think there's a way to do what you want. But there exist some workarounds.
For example, you could load your list of strings from a file.
That example can show you a hint :
Dim value As String = File.ReadAllText("C:\file.txt")
Also, this page talks about it : Excel macros - Too many line continuations.
To expand on freelax's answer:
You could store the string values in an external text file and read the items into an array line by line. My example (untested) early binds to the Microsoft Scripting Runtime library.
Dim arr() as string
Dim fso as New FileSystemObject
Dim fl as file
Dim ts as textstrean
Dim i as long ' counter
Set fl = fso.GetFile("c:\path\to\configfile.txt")
Set ts = fl.OpenAsTextStream(ForReading)
i = 0
Do While Not ts.AtEndOfStream
Redim Preserve arr(i) 'resize the array leaving data in place
arr(i) = ts.Readline
i = i + 1
Loop
Further Reading:
FileSystemObject
File
TextStream
Reading a text file with
vba
Redim an array
Of course, you'll probably want to be smarter about resizing the array, doubling it's size when you run out of space.
An option for a workaround might be to use the Join Command, like this:
Const ARRAY_VALUES As String = _
"string1,string2," & _
"string3,string4"
Dim big_ol_array() As String
big_ol_array() = Split(ARRAY_VALUES, ",")
This would allow you to put multiple entries on each line, and then you could use multiple lines continuations.
Or, if you really want one value per line, you could just use multiple constants, like this:
Const ARRAY_VALUES1 As String = _
"string1," & _
"string2," & _
"string3," & _
"string4,"
Const ARRAY_VALUES2 As String = _
"string5," & _
"string6," & _
"string7," & _
"string8"
Const ARRAY_VALUES As String = _
ARRAY_VALUES1 & _
sARRAY_VALUES2
Of course, you could choose a different delimiter if it conflicts with your data. In cases like this I'll use a pretty rare but readable delimiter like the bullet (•), which can be typed by holding the Alt key and typing the "0149" on the number pad. Then your code would look like this:
Const ARRAY_VALUES As String = _
"string1•string2•" & _
"string3•string4"
Dim big_ol_array() As String
big_ol_array() = Split(ARRAY_VALUES, "•")
Here's some other interesting delimiters. These will all show up in the IDE (while others will just look like a box):
§ ¸ · • ¤ « » ¦ ± _ ¯ ¨ ª ¹ ² ³ ´ ° º ¿ ¡
Get rid of the line continuation character as what GSerg posted in this link if you want to keep it simple. Same link posted by Freelex actually.
Dim bigStr As String, big_ol_array() As String
bigStr = "string1"
bigStr = bigStr & "," & "string2"
bigStr = bigStr & "," & "string3"
.
.
bigStr = bigStr & "," & "string9999"
big_ol_array() = Split(bigStr, ",")
Dim BigOlArray(1 to 99999) as String
BigOlArray(1) = "String1"
BigOlArray(2) = "String2"
or to save some typing
' Keep copy/pasting the second and third lines as needed
' then all you need to change is the string
x = 1
BigOlArray(x) = "String1"
x = x+1
BigOlArray(x) = "String2"
x = x+1
BigOlArray(x) = "String3"
x = x+1