VB2005 structures to file

[Galen Somerville]

And yet another VB6 to VB2005 problem. All helpful suggestions appreciated.

As you can see in the code below, my structures use fixed length strings and
known array sizes. Consequently I can save to files as a large byte array.

This is a series of Lectures where there is a capacity for 8 instructors
with up to 8 lectures each. So a parameters file made from glctInstTable is
2,232 bytes.

The 64 lectures, for the above, each consist of 100 lecture steps each. This
creates a 211,200 byte lecture file.

At the start of the program all parameters are read in. Only a specific
lecture is read in when required, as shown in last item below.

During a program run, if changes are made, they can be written back to the
files on the fly.

Now the problem. I can initialize the array sizes when the program first
calls for reading in the lectures etc. But I do not want to initialize as
fixed length strings. But with variable length strings I can't write a
simple byte array to a file.

There would be no way to use simple math to find a lecture position in such
a file. I would like to avoid using a database approach.

I could pad all strings to a fixed size when writing the file and then trim
(unpad) when reading in the file. This would, of course, be a pain in the
neck.

HELP !!!

GalenS
TYPE DECLARATIONS
' Lecture structures
Private Type ulctLectStruc
FilNam As String * 25
BPMRate As Integer
PgmTyp As Byte
VolLvl(4) As Byte
End Type
Public glctLecture(99) As ulctLectStruc

Private Type ulctInstrStruc
InstName As String * 15
Password As String * 8
LectName(7) As String * 30
Quiz(7) As Integer
End Type
Public glctInstTable(7) As ulctInstrStruc

Public Type stcLectures
InstSelect As Boolean 'Instructor selected
LectSelect As Boolean 'Lecture selected
InstNum As Integer 'Current instructor #
LectNum As Integer 'Current lecture #
QuizNum As Integer 'Current quiz #
LectEdit As Boolean 'force edit
Passwd As Boolean 'password received
Step As Integer 'Current active step
BPM As Integer 'current lect step BPM
Active As Boolean 'Lecture is in use
Advance As Boolean 'Advance or backup direction
PgmType As Byte '0=Film 6=Resp 11=Vet
End Type
Public gLect As stcLectures

OPENING THE LECTURE AND PARAMETER FILES
Temp1 = Len(glctLecture(0)) * 100
Temp2 = Len(glctInstTable(0))
sFile = clsRes.LoadResStgA(401) 'lct file
strCurrFile = gstrPgmPath & sFile
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler ' Enable error-handling routine.
lctFile = FreeFile
Open strCurrFile For Random Access Read Write As #lctFile Len = Temp1 '
Open file for input.
sFile = clsRes.LoadResStgA(400) 'par file
strCurrFile = gstrPgmPath & sFile
parFile = FreeFile
Open strCurrFile For Random Access Read Write As #parFile Len = Temp2 '
Open file for input.
READING THE PASSWORD PROTECTED PARAMETERS FILE INTO STRUCTURES
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler ' Enable error-handling routine.
For Index = 0 To 7 Step 1
Get #parFile, Index + 1, glctInstTable(Index)
strTemp = glctInstTable(Index).Password
For Inner = 1 To 8 Step 1
intTemp = Asc(Mid$(strTemp, Inner, 1)) Xor bytCode(Inner - 1)
Mid$(strTemp, Inner, 1) = Chr$(intTemp)
Next Inner
glctInstTable(Index).Password = strTemp
Next Index
READING IN THE DESIRED LECTURE (OUT OF 64) TO LECTURE STRUCTURE OF 100 STEPS
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler ' Enable error-handling routine.
LectFilePosition = (gLect.InstNum * 8) + gLect.LectNum + 1
Get #lctFile, LectFilePosition, glctLecture

[Mythran]

"Galen Somerville" <ga***@community.nospam> wrote in message
news:e1*************@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

And yet another VB6 to VB2005 problem. All helpful suggestions
appreciated.

As you can see in the code below, my structures use fixed length strings
and known array sizes. Consequently I can save to files as a large byte
array.

This is a series of Lectures where there is a capacity for 8 instructors
with up to 8 lectures each. So a parameters file made from glctInstTable
is 2,232 bytes.

The 64 lectures, for the above, each consist of 100 lecture steps each.
This creates a 211,200 byte lecture file.

At the start of the program all parameters are read in. Only a specific
lecture is read in when required, as shown in last item below.

During a program run, if changes are made, they can be written back to the
files on the fly.

Now the problem. I can initialize the array sizes when the program first
calls for reading in the lectures etc. But I do not want to initialize as
fixed length strings. But with variable length strings I can't write a
simple byte array to a file.

There would be no way to use simple math to find a lecture position in
such a file. I would like to avoid using a database approach.

I could pad all strings to a fixed size when writing the file and then
trim (unpad) when reading in the file. This would, of course, be a pain in
the neck.

HELP !!!

GalenS
TYPE DECLARATIONS
' Lecture structures
Private Type ulctLectStruc
FilNam As String * 25
BPMRate As Integer
PgmTyp As Byte
VolLvl(4) As Byte
End Type
Public glctLecture(99) As ulctLectStruc

Private Type ulctInstrStruc
InstName As String * 15
Password As String * 8
LectName(7) As String * 30
Quiz(7) As Integer
End Type
Public glctInstTable(7) As ulctInstrStruc

Public Type stcLectures
InstSelect As Boolean 'Instructor selected
LectSelect As Boolean 'Lecture selected
InstNum As Integer 'Current instructor #
LectNum As Integer 'Current lecture #
QuizNum As Integer 'Current quiz #
LectEdit As Boolean 'force edit
Passwd As Boolean 'password received
Step As Integer 'Current active step
BPM As Integer 'current lect step BPM
Active As Boolean 'Lecture is in use
Advance As Boolean 'Advance or backup direction
PgmType As Byte '0=Film 6=Resp 11=Vet
End Type
Public gLect As stcLectures

OPENING THE LECTURE AND PARAMETER FILES
Temp1 = Len(glctLecture(0)) * 100
Temp2 = Len(glctInstTable(0))
sFile = clsRes.LoadResStgA(401) 'lct file
strCurrFile = gstrPgmPath & sFile
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler ' Enable error-handling routine.
lctFile = FreeFile
Open strCurrFile For Random Access Read Write As #lctFile Len = Temp1
' Open file for input.
sFile = clsRes.LoadResStgA(400) 'par file
strCurrFile = gstrPgmPath & sFile
parFile = FreeFile
Open strCurrFile For Random Access Read Write As #parFile Len = Temp2
' Open file for input.
READING THE PASSWORD PROTECTED PARAMETERS FILE INTO STRUCTURES
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler ' Enable error-handling routine.
For Index = 0 To 7 Step 1
Get #parFile, Index + 1, glctInstTable(Index)
strTemp = glctInstTable(Index).Password
For Inner = 1 To 8 Step 1
intTemp = Asc(Mid$(strTemp, Inner, 1)) Xor bytCode(Inner - 1)
Mid$(strTemp, Inner, 1) = Chr$(intTemp)
Next Inner
glctInstTable(Index).Password = strTemp
Next Index
READING IN THE DESIRED LECTURE (OUT OF 64) TO LECTURE STRUCTURE OF 100
STEPS
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler ' Enable error-handling routine.
LectFilePosition = (gLect.InstNum * 8) + gLect.LectNum + 1
Get #lctFile, LectFilePosition, glctLecture

This reply doesn't help exactly what you are doing, but a suggestion...have
you tried going the route of datasets? I mean, you can do what you are
trying to using a dataset and saving the file(s) as XML. Loading is just as
easy.

HTH,
Mythran