String builder (Parsing vertically presented records)

[ILCSP]

Hi, I just started learning Visual Basic (VB.NET 03) and I need to do
this small program that will read a text file we get from another
company that has survey data, parse it and flatten it out and make
single strings out of the records in it. The major difference between
this space delimited file from the many examples in these groups is
that the data is not presented horizontally, but vertically. You can
see an example below.

What I need from this Visual Basic procedure to do first is to ignore
the first line of the text file (headings). Then, extract the RegID
from the first survey record, get all 25 numbers with their answers
(some of them are blank and some of them are numbers) and convert it
into a single string. After this is done, I need a carriage return so
the next survey record can be flatten out. One thing that might make
this easier is that I do get a line that says "NewRegID" when a new
survey record starts.

I need the final data to look like this:

214555134,1,Y,2 ,N,3,Y,4,1,5,Y, 6,Y,7,Y,8,Y,9,1 ,10,Y,11, ... all the way
to 25,2.
214016421,1,Y,2 ,Y,3,Y, .. and so on.

and it will be saved as a text file.

So far, this is what I have in my command button. This basically opens
the text file with StreamReader, reads it line by line and places it
in a text box called txtStrings. I'm missing the most important part:
the record builder and string creation.
Dim StrFileName As String
strFileName ="C:\Survey01.t xt"
If Not System.IO.File. Exists(StrFileN ame) Then
MsgBox("File does not exists.")
Exit Sub
End If

Dim strRdr As System.IO.Strea mReader =
System.IO.File. OpenText(StrFil eName)

Dim StrLine As String
StrLine = strRdr.ReadLine ()
Do Until StrLine Is Nothing
txtStrings.Appe ndText(StrLine & vbCrLf)
StrLine = strRdr.ReadLine ()
Loop
strRdr.Close()

Survey1.txt sample:

RegID ItemName Response
214555134 NewRegID
214555134 1 Y
214555134 2 N
214555134 3 Y
214555134 4 1
214555134 5 Y
214555134 6 Y
214555134 7 Y
214555134 8 Y
214555134 9 1
214555134 10 Y
214555134 11 Y
214555134 12 Y
214555134 13 Y
214555134 14 Y
214555134 15 1
214555134 16
214555134 17 Y
214555134 18 Y
214555134 19 Y
214555134 20 Y
214555134 21 1
214555134 22 N
214555134 23 N
214555134 24 1
214555134 25 2
214016421 NewRegID
214016421 1 Y
214016421 2 Y
214016421 3 Y
214016421 4 1
214016421 5 Y
214016421 6
214016421 7 Y
214016421 8 Y
214016421 9 1
214016421 10 Y
214016421 11 N
214016421 12 Y
214016421 13 Y
214016421 14 Y
214016421 15 1
214016421 16 Y
214016421 17
214016421 18 Y
214016421 19 Y
214016421 20 Y
214016421 21 1
214016421 21 1
214016421 22 Y
214016421 23 N
214016421 24 2
214016421 25 3
213565432 1 Y
213565432 2 N
213565432 3 N
...
EOF

Any help would be greatly appreciated it.

Thanks!

[Chris]

IL***@NETZERO.N ET wrote:

Hi, I just started learning Visual Basic (VB.NET 03) and I need to do
this small program that will read a text file we get from another
company that has survey data, parse it and flatten it out and make
single strings out of the records in it. The major difference between
this space delimited file from the many examples in these groups is
that the data is not presented horizontally, but vertically. You can
see an example below.

What I need from this Visual Basic procedure to do first is to ignore
the first line of the text file (headings). Then, extract the RegID
from the first survey record, get all 25 numbers with their answers
(some of them are blank and some of them are numbers) and convert it
into a single string. After this is done, I need a carriage return so
the next survey record can be flatten out. One thing that might make
this easier is that I do get a line that says "NewRegID" when a new
survey record starts.

I need the final data to look like this:

214555134,1,Y,2 ,N,3,Y,4,1,5,Y, 6,Y,7,Y,8,Y,9,1 ,10,Y,11, ... all the way
to 25,2.
214016421,1,Y,2 ,Y,3,Y, .. and so on.

and it will be saved as a text file.

So far, this is what I have in my command button. This basically opens
the text file with StreamReader, reads it line by line and places it
in a text box called txtStrings. I'm missing the most important part:
the record builder and string creation.
Dim StrFileName As String
strFileName ="C:\Survey01.t xt"
If Not System.IO.File. Exists(StrFileN ame) Then
MsgBox("File does not exists.")
Exit Sub
End If

Dim strRdr As System.IO.Strea mReader =
System.IO.File. OpenText(StrFil eName)

Dim StrLine As String
StrLine = strRdr.ReadLine ()
Do Until StrLine Is Nothing
txtStrings.Appe ndText(StrLine & vbCrLf)
StrLine = strRdr.ReadLine ()
Loop
strRdr.Close()

Survey1.txt sample:

RegID ItemName Response
214555134 NewRegID
214555134 1 Y
214555134 2 N
214555134 3 Y
214555134 4 1
214555134 5 Y
214555134 6 Y
214555134 7 Y
214555134 8 Y
214555134 9 1
214555134 10 Y
214555134 11 Y
214555134 12 Y
214555134 13 Y
214555134 14 Y
214555134 15 1
214555134 16
214555134 17 Y
214555134 18 Y
214555134 19 Y
214555134 20 Y
214555134 21 1
214555134 22 N
214555134 23 N
214555134 24 1
214555134 25 2
214016421 NewRegID
214016421 1 Y
214016421 2 Y
214016421 3 Y
214016421 4 1
214016421 5 Y
214016421 6
214016421 7 Y
214016421 8 Y
214016421 9 1
214016421 10 Y
214016421 11 N
214016421 12 Y
214016421 13 Y
214016421 14 Y
214016421 15 1
214016421 16 Y
214016421 17
214016421 18 Y
214016421 19 Y
214016421 20 Y
214016421 21 1
214016421 21 1
214016421 22 Y
214016421 23 N
214016421 24 2
214016421 25 3
213565432 1 Y
213565432 2 N
213565432 3 N
..
EOF

Any help would be greatly appreciated it.

Thanks!

Maybe this will help you. You probably want to use the String.Split
function to get the indvidual items.

Dim StrFileName As String
strFileName ="C:\Survey01.t xt"
If Not System.IO.File. Exists(StrFileN ame) Then
MsgBox("File does not exists.")
Exit Sub
End If

Dim strRdr As System.IO.Strea mReader =
System.IO.File. OpenText(StrFil eName)
Dim StrLine As String
Dim StringArray() as String
Do strRdr.Peek <> -1
StrLine = strRdr.ReadLine ()
if StrLine.EndsWit h(NewRegID) then
'This is a new Record
StringArray = StrLine.Split(" ")
'StringArray(0) is your new ID
else
'This continuing record
StringArray = StrLine.Split(" ")
'String(0) has Column1
'String(1) has Column2
'String(2) has Column3 (if there is one)
for ii as integer = 1 to String.Getupper bound(0)
'Append your string here
next
end if
Loop
strRdr.Close()

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Hi EOF

Do you mean something as (typed here not checked so watch typos or whatever)

Dim StrLine As String
StrLine = strRdr.ReadLine () dim sb as new text.stringbuil der(StrLine.Sub string(0,9))Do Until StrLine Is Nothing dim fields() = StrLine.Split()
sb.append(field s(1) & fields(2)) StrLine = strRdr.ReadLine () if Is StrLine Not Nothing AndAlso
strline.indexof ("NewRegID") > -1 then
strWrt.WriteLin e(sb.ToString)
sb = new text.Stringbuil der(StrLine.Sub string(0,9))
end if Loop
strRdr.Close()

I hope this helps,

Cor

[Cerebrus]

Hi,

Another implementation :

=============== ====
Private Sub ReadText()
Dim fsr As New FileStream("Ver tFile.txt", FileMode.Open,
FileAccess.Read )
Dim fsw As New FileStream("Res ultFile.txt", FileMode.Create ,
FileAccess.Writ e)
Dim sr As New StreamReader(fs r)
Dim sw As New StreamWriter(fs w)

Dim thisLine As String
Dim lineContents() As String

'Ignore the first line of the text file
sr.ReadLine()
While sr.Peek > -1
thisLine = sr.ReadLine()
lineContents = thisLine.Split( New Char() {" "c})
If lineContents(1) .Trim = "NewRegID" Then
'We have a new record. Write current value of sb and Insert new
line.
If sb.Length > 0 Then
'Replace the last comma with a period.
sb.Replace(",", ".", sb.Length - 1, 1)
sw.WriteLine(sb .ToString())
End If
sb = New StringBuilder()
sb.Append(lineC ontents(0))
sb.Append(",")
Else
'This is the same record. Keep adding text
sb.Append(lineC ontents(1))
sb.Append(",")
If sb.Length > 2 Then
sb.Append(lineC ontents(2))
sb.Append(",")
End If
End If
End While
'Replace the last comma with a period.
sb.Replace(",", ".", sb.Length - 1, 1)
sw.WriteLine(sb .ToString())
sw.Flush()
'Clean up
sw.Close()
sr.Close()
fsr.Close()
fsw.Close()
End Sub
=============== ====

Note that your third set of records (213565432) does not have the line
"NewRegID".
When that line is inserted in the sample text, then it works.

Regards,

Cerebrus.

[ILCSP]

Hi again, thanks for replying.

I'm trying Cerebrus code right now, but when I debug I get these
errors:

Name 'sb' is not declared
Type 'FileStream' is not defined
Type 'StreamReader' is not defined

Am I missing something since these FileStream and StreamReader names
don't seem to be recognized by VB? Does the variable "sb" actually is
meant to be "sr" or is it for the text box?

I'm running VB.net version 2003.

The third and all subsequent records do have the "NewRegID" so that's
not a problem.

Thanks.

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

You needs some imports in the top of your program

imports system.text
imports system.io

Or put that text and io before where that streamreader and stringbuilder are
used.
text.stringbuil der

Cor

<IL***@NETZERO. NET> schreef in bericht
news:11******** **************@ j33g2000cwa.goo glegroups.com.. .

Hi again, thanks for replying.

I'm trying Cerebrus code right now, but when I debug I get these
errors:

Name 'sb' is not declared
Type 'FileStream' is not defined
Type 'StreamReader' is not defined

Am I missing something since these FileStream and StreamReader names
don't seem to be recognized by VB? Does the variable "sb" actually is
meant to be "sr" or is it for the text box?

I'm running VB.net version 2003.

The third and all subsequent records do have the "NewRegID" so that's
not a problem.

Thanks.

[ILCSP]

Hi, when I added the lines to the top of my procedures:

imports system.text
imports system.io

I got a Syntax error for the 2 of them.

Therefore, I had to change the first line to this:
Dim fsr As New System.io.FileS tream("c:\surv0 60313a.txt",
IO.FileMode.Ope n)

I still get a "name 'sb' is not declared" error for every time the line
shows in the code.

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Yes

It is missing, if you look in my sample I have showed you than you see.

dim sb as new text.stringbuil der(StrLine.Sub string(0,9))

in this case you can set it with the declarations in the style Cerebrus
does.

dim sb as new text.stringbuil der()

Cor

<IL***@NETZERO. NET> schreef in bericht
news:11******** **************@ j52g2000cwj.goo glegroups.com.. .

Hi, when I added the lines to the top of my procedures:

imports system.text
imports system.io

I got a Syntax error for the 2 of them.

Therefore, I had to change the first line to this:
Dim fsr As New System.io.FileS tream("c:\surv0 60313a.txt",
IO.FileMode.Ope n)

I still get a "name 'sb' is not declared" error for every time the line
shows in the code.

[ILCSP]

Hello Cor, now I am trying your code. I'm sorry if I sound way too
frustrated, but I've been trying to do this for days now.

This is what I have in my command button:

=============== ===========

Dim StrFileName As String
StrFileName = "C:\Survey01.tx t"
If Not System.IO.File. Exists(StrFileN ame) Then
MsgBox("File does not exists.")
Exit Sub
End If

Dim StrLine As String
Dim strRdr As System.IO.Strea mReader =
System.IO.File. OpenText(StrFil eName)
Dim sb As New System.text.Str ingBuilder(StrL ine.Substring(0 , 9))

StrLine = strRdr.ReadLine ()
Do Until StrLine Is Nothing
Dim fields() = StrLine.Split()
sb.append(field s(1) & fields(2))

if Is StrLine Not Nothing AndAlso strline.indexof ("NewRegID") > -1
then
strWrt.WriteLin e(sb.ToString)
sb = New System.text.Str ingBuilder(StrL ine.Substring(0 , 9))
End If

Loop
strRdr.Close()

=============== ===========
I am getting an "expression expected" error in the last IF Statement:
if Is StrLine Not Nothing AndAlso strline.indexof ("NewRegID") > -1 then

strWrt.WriteLin e(sb.ToString)
sb = New System.text.Str ingBuilder(StrL ine.Substring(0 , 9))
End if
Also, I am getting a "Name strWrt is not declared" error because the
strWrt was not declared.
I tried to declared it as a string, but I got a 'writeline' is not a
member of sTring.

Finally, when I am supposed to append the outcome to my text box (
txtStrings) so I can see it?
Please advise me what to do next.

Thanks.

[ILCSP]

It's me again, I took another look at those survey text files and I
realized that what separates the columns is not a space, but a (^T)
character. Consequently, this is what one line is made of
214555134^T1^T Y^P

Where ^T is the "space" between the first, second and third columns.
The last character for each line is a paragraph break.

Hope this helps.