help please! when a string contains variable references

[CCLeasing]

I have a variable string, called formatstring The general format of the
string is : -

"somevariable + "some string text" + some variable2 + "some more text"
.... "

I want to use this variable as the argument for writeline like so : -

writeline(formatstring);

the problem i have is that writeline treats the variable formatstring
as a literal string, and doesn't realise that it includes variables
that needs replacing.

how do i get around this?

[Jeroen]

Maybe I'm just not smart enough to distill the actual problem from your
post, so (unless someone posts the answer in the mean time :)) please
elaborate: post some code and the error you are getting.

The main part I'm confused about is: what do you want to achieve? Do
you need to do something like PHP where you can say "time of the day is
$somescalar at this moment"? Or do you want the parameter to be
evaluated into one string before it's passed on writeline?

Regards,
Jeroen
CCLeasing wrote:

I have a variable string, called formatstring The general format of the
string is : -

"somevariable + "some string text" + some variable2 + "some more text"
... "

I want to use this variable as the argument for writeline like so : -

writeline(formatstring);

the problem i have is that writeline treats the variable formatstring
as a literal string, and doesn't realise that it includes variables
that needs replacing.

how do i get around this?

[Marc Gravell]

Well, there is no such thing (AFAIK) as a "variable string"... you can use
format place-holders, however, and append the values to the call? Otherwise,
assuming that your variables are strings, you *have* created a standard
string. Format example:

string s1 = "is", s2 = "format example", s3 = "variables";
int count = 4;
e.g. string.Format("this {0} a {1} using {2} {3}", s1, s2, count, s3);

Note that some methods such as Console.WriteLine also offer this indirectly
without having to go through string.Format explicitely...

Marc

[CCLeasing]

OK here is what i'm trying to achieve.

I have a windows form which contains various controls. When save is
pressed I need to copy the contents of the controls into a string and
send this to a file.

At the moment i'm constructing the string to be placed on the clipboard
in the usual way: -

clipboardstring = control.text + " ; " + control2.text + "-" etc...

The thing is the format that i need the string in changes and so I need
to be able to write the format into a text file and read this into my
program at runtime.

so lets say on monday the format might be: -

control.text + "; " + control2.text + "-"

then on tuesday it might be

control2.text + "*" + control2.text

now my one line text file on monday would be:
control.text + "; " + control2.text + "-"

and on tuesday my one line text file would be
control2.text + "*" + control2.text

Then when the program runs i would open the file, read the line in and
set it equal to clipboardstring - then i would like to use
writeline(clipboardstring) to construct my line. The problem is that
this will always be treated as a literal string. But i'm using the
string as a mixture of variables and strings.

I hope it's clearer thanks.

[Marc Gravell]

3 options:
1: agree (in advance) the potential vaiables (and their sequence), and use
the inbuild string.Format, always passing in the same values on the rhs, but
just changing the format-string
2: agree some defined tokens and use string search functions to identify
tokens and resolve the meaning(e.g. %CONTROL1% maps [via your code] to
control.text)
3: use a pile of reflection (or Controls.Find) to resolve fields (Controls),
etc. Messy.

Personally I'd go the first route unless there was a reason not to.

Marc

[CCLeasing]

Thanks marc can you elaborate a bit on option one please

thankyou

Marc Gravell wrote:

3 options:
1: agree (in advance) the potential vaiables (and their sequence), and use
the inbuild string.Format, always passing in the same values on the rhs, but
just changing the format-string
2: agree some defined tokens and use string search functions to identify
tokens and resolve the meaning(e.g. %CONTROL1% maps [via your code] to
control.text)
3: use a pile of reflection (or Controls.Find) to resolve fields (Controls),
etc. Messy.

Personally I'd go the first route unless there was a reason not to.

Marc

[Marc Gravell]

See my first post, dated (to my view) 08/11/06 11:08; replace s1, s2, etc
with control.Text, control1.Text, etc. The "3 options" post was post number
2 from me.

Marc

[CCLeasing]

I have been unable to find your relevent previous post.

I am not quite getting your solotuion to my problem.

Can you or someone else elaborate / and or suggest a different
solution.

Thanks.

[Marc Gravell]

REPOST:

Well, there is no such thing (AFAIK) as a "variable string"... you can use
format place-holders, however, and append the values to the call? Otherwise,
assuming that your variables are strings, you *have* created a standard
string. Format example:

string s1 = "is", s2 = "format example", s3 = "variables";
int count = 4;
e.g. string.Format("this {0} a {1} using {2} {3}", s1, s2, count, s3);

Note that some methods such as Console.WriteLine also offer this indirectly
without having to go through string.Format explicitely...

Marc