Visual Basic procedure to find and replace text

[hiattech]

This is a shot in the dark, but I'm pretty sure VB can do this. I'll give some background on the problem first.
I work at a casino and we use embossers to print cards for players. We currently 3 different embossers that can be switched to in order to print different cards. We have a program that is run that asks a simple A, B or C to switch it. Unfortunately, we don't know who created the original file, but we figured out what it does. Basically it goes into our Oasis.ini file and searches for the line that says this:
[Card]
embossprinter=\\acijpnt32\ACIJPPRN103

The last number can either be a 3, 4, or 5. We are attempting to move these embossers to our new print server, but to do so, we have to recreate a program that can go into the Oasis.ini file, search for the above mentioned line, and change the last part of the code. The new line would need to look something like this:
[Card]
embossprinter=\\acijpnt30\ACIJPPRN090

the last can be 091, 092, 093, 094 or 095 (we are planning to add a few embossers in as well so we are including the range for that).
A friend of mine looked some stuff up and said that we could set the first part as the constant that it looks for and set the last part as the variable that we can change. Unfortunately, any of the coding I've found hasn't helped at all in doing this. If anyone has some insights on this, that'd be great.

Thanks!

[HaggardSmurf]

Just paste it all into word and press ctrl H and type what you want to find and what you want to replace it with.

(I think thats what your asking anyways)

[hiattech]

No, not quite. we know how to change the line manually, but the people we're setting this up for don't. The program will go in and change the line without them knowing. basically, they open the app, click a button with the name of the printer they want, and in the background (without them seeing anything that happens) it goes into the file, and changes the line to the correct printer. does that make more sense?

[Dököll]

No, not quite. we know how to change the line manually, but the people we're setting this up for don't. The program will go in and change the line without them knowing. basically, they open the app, click a button with the name of the printer they want, and in the background (without them seeing anything that happens) it goes into the file, and changes the line to the correct printer. does that make more sense?

Hello, hiattech!

Here is a link to Google results:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Using+a+VB+program+to+find+and+replace+te xt++in+.ini+file&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7SUNA

I have not done anything in .ini so I cannot help you there. I do have a code that replaces characters in a text file though (.txt). Let me know if it can be helpful.

Good luck with the project!

[hiattech]

well, lets see if the replacing text in a .txt works on an ini. can you give me a few lines to try? I'm semi rusty on VB, but I can change things around if need be. Basically, on button click, it has to run the changing of a line in the file.
Thanks.

[Dököll]

well, lets see if the replacing text in a .txt works on an ini. can you give me a few lines to try? I'm semi rusty on VB, but I can change things around if need be. Basically, on button click, it has to run the changing of a line in the file.
Thanks.

Please stay tuned, I have to fetch for it. It goes something like:

Dim ReplaceThis As String
Dim GoFetchIt As String
Private Sub GoReplace_Click()
GoFetchIt = Text1(0).Text
ReplaceThis = Text1(1).Text 'Perhaps your file loaded here
Do While InStr(LCase(GoFetchIt), ReplaceThis)
...something in that kind of a line
 

Can't recall the rest of as of now. You'd need to tell VB to fetch the extreme right of the file though.

In a bit!

[Killer42]

How about this for a "quick and dirty" approach?

Option Explicit
 
Public Sub DumpFile_V02(ByVal FileName As String, ByVal strChangeFrom As String, ByVal strChangeTo As String)
  Dim FileNo As Long
  Dim FileSize As Long
  Dim Buffer As String
  Dim CharNo As Long, Char As String * 1
 
 
  ' *** Step 1: Read the current file into a string variable...
 
  FileNo = FreeFile ' Get next available file number.
  Open FileName For Binary Access Read Write Lock Write As #FileNo
  FileSize = LOF(FileNo) ' Determine how large the file is (in bytes).
  Buffer = Space$(FileSize) ' Set our buffer (string) to that length.
  ' The length of the string (Buffer) determines how many bytes are read...
  Get #FileNo, , Buffer ' Grab a chunk of data from the file.
  Close #FileNo
 
  ' *** Step 2: Make the change in memory...
  Buffer = Replace(Buffer, strChangeFrom, strChangeTo)
 
  ' *** Step 3: Overwrite the file...
 
  FileNo = FreeFile ' Get next available file number.
  Open FileName For Output Access Write Lock Write As #FileNo
  Close #FileNo
 
End Sub

Just paste this into a code module, and you've got a simple Text file string replacement routine. Just pass it the name of the INI file, the old string and the new string (for safety you should pass the full line, not just "003" or whatever).

Note that it has none of the niceties such as error handling, and so on.

Oh, and yes, an INI file is simply a plain ASCII text file with a different extension.

[Killer42]

Oh rats!

That will only work if you know the exact value that's already there.

Hm... how about this...

Option Explicit
 
Public Sub ReplaceInFile(ByVal FileName As String, ByVal strFindThis As String, ByVal lngCharsToChange As Long, ByVal strChangeTo As String)
  Dim FileNo As Long
  Dim Buffer As String
  Dim Length As Long
  Dim strLine As String
 
  Length = Len(strFindThis)
  If Length = 0 Then Exit Sub ' Drop out if o search string passed.
 
  ' *** Step 1: Read the current file, doing the switch as we go...
 
  FileNo = FreeFile ' Get next available file number.
  Open FileName For Input Access Read Lock Write As #FileNo
  Do Until EOF(FileNo)
    Line Input #FileNo, strLine
    If Left$(strLine, Length) = strFindThis Then
      strLine = Left$(strLine, Len(strLine) - lngCharsToChange) & strChangeTo
    End If
    Buffer = Buffer & IIf((Buffer = ""), "", vbNewLine) & strLine
  Loop
 
  ' *** Step 2: Write back the modified file...
 
  FileNo = FreeFile ' Get next available file number.
  Open FileName For Output Access Write Lock Write As #FileNo
  Print #FileNo, Buffer
  Close #FileNo
 
End Sub

This is untested, so use it with care. It has the potential to totally stuff up pretty much any file you tell it to.

The idea is that you would give it the first, constant part of the line, the number of character to replace at the end (um... I think it was 3?) and the string to replace them with.

[hiattech]

Oh rats!

That will only work if you know the exact value that's already there.

Hm... how about this...

This is untested, so use it with care. It has the potential to totally stuff up pretty much any file you tell it to.

The idea is that you would give it the first, constant part of the line, the number of character to replace at the end (um... I think it was 3?) and the string to replace them with.

What version of VB is this using? I copied this in and received a lot of errors. As I went thorugh trying to find the spots I needed to replace, I found this:
'Line' statements are longer supported. File I/O functionality is available as 'Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileSystem.LineInput' and the graphics functionality is available as 'System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawLine'.

I'm currently using Visual Studios 2005, but I have 2003 on my laptop. Which would be the better to use?

[hiattech]

Here's a screenshot of the process they go through to change the embossers. They double click a file called NewEmbosser.exe, it opens a dos-like window like below. That's what they see, and then what happens in the background that they do not see. It's simple, yet not.

[Killer42]

Sorry, this was Vb6 code. If you have a choice, I suppose it's better to use the later version (2005) unless this introduces problem in backward compatibility with your other system.

I'd suggest you either use 'Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileSystem.LineInput' as suggested by the error messages, or (probably the better option) look up how to do line by line file input in VB.Net. It probably involves using StreamReader, or FileSystemObject (or both).

I hope to soon have information about this sort of simple operation available in the Articles section, but so far we only have the Vb6 version.

[Dököll]

Nuts, this was a wonderfully written code too. Are you aware of session videos for VB 2005 Express, why don't you take a listen, watch/get tips while we try to come up with something, it's sure probable to read ini through VB 2005:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/features/

Scroll down to watch video session.

Please stay tuned!

[Dököll]

Nuts, this was a wonderfully written code too. Are you aware of session videos for VB 2005 Express, why don't you take a listen, watch/get tips while we try to come up with something, it's sure probable to read ini through VB 2005:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/features/

Scroll down to watch video session.

Please stay tuned!

I am on a hunt for a solution for you, just started learning VB 2005, give me a month or so to come with the code. Picked up VB 2005 Cookbook by O'Reilly, looks promissing...

[danp129]

Here's a regular expression approach. I didn't build the expression to only match within any particular [section] though.

Option Explicit On
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Public Class Form1
 
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim sMyIniPath As String = "c:\myini.ini"
        Dim sPrinterName As String = "printserver001"
        Dim sMyIniText As String = My.Computer.FileSystem.ReadAllText(sMyIniPath)
        sMyIniText = Regex.Replace(sMyIniText, "embossprinter=[^\r\n]+", "embossprinter=" & sPrinterName)
        My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllText("c:\myini.ini", sMyIniText, False)
    End Sub
End Class

[hiattech]

Hmm, i'll give that a shot. Haven't had a chance to work on this project lately so hopefully i can put a bit more into getting it done now.

Thanks!

Here's a regular expression approach. I didn't build the expression to only match within any particular [section] though.
.....