string manipulation, file input problem....

[cipher]

ok, im gonna try and explain this as best i can...
i have an AS/400 program that generates big, ugly, messy reports. i need to
read these ASCII reports in and output meaningful data. the good news is
that the raw reports are sequential files with fixed length fields. im
having only a few problems but its driving me nuts. here is a small sample
of what the file might look like: (im simplifying of course, and adding line
numbers)

1 ghfljkgsdfjklgs garbage gsdfgsdfg gfdsg fdsgdsgds
2 ITEM 0009
3 PRICE 7889
4 QUANTITY 3214
5 ITEM 0010
6 PRICE 2214
7 QUANTITY 0008

ok so... the structure of the file is like this: there will be an item# and
a corresponding price and quantity to THAT item number. then there will be
another item# with its own price and quantity. so what i could do is read
until i find "ITEM", get the item number, then read until i find the price
and quantity. while doing this if i again find "ITEM" i know im done with
the previous item and have a new item. but the problem is that sometimes the
item# will be the same because the report thinks that it has output too much
data and it needs to remind you of what item you are on. ok so when i find
"ITEM" i can compare it to the current item and if its the same then i know
its the same item. my only problem is that this seems to be one big,
confusing and complicated routine with nested if's and do while's. anyone
wanna save my sanity and help me out?

[R.Wieser]

cipher <de*@null.com > schreef in berichtnieuws
oP************* **********@news 4.srv.hcvlny.cv .net...

Hello cipher,

ok, im gonna try and explain this as best i can...
i have an AS/400 program that generates big, ugly, messy reports. i need to read these ASCII reports in and output meaningful data. the good news is
that the raw reports are sequential files with fixed length fields. im
having only a few problems but its driving me nuts. here is a small sample
of what the file might look like: (im simplifying of course, and adding line numbers)

1 ghfljkgsdfjklgs garbage gsdfgsdfg gfdsg fdsgdsgds
2 ITEM 0009
3 PRICE 7889
4 QUANTITY 3214
5 ITEM 0010
6 PRICE 2214
7 QUANTITY 0008

ok so... the structure of the file is like this: there will be an item# and a corresponding price and quantity to THAT item number. then there will be
another item# with its own price and quantity. so what i could do is read
until i find "ITEM", get the item number, then read until i find the price
and quantity. while doing this if i again find "ITEM" i know im done with
the previous item and have a new item. but the problem is that sometimes the item# will be the same because the report thinks that it has output too much data and it needs to remind you of what item you are on. ok so when i find
"ITEM" i can compare it to the current item and if its the same then i know its the same item. my only problem is that this seems to be one big,
confusing and complicated routine with nested if's and do while's. anyone
wanna save my sanity and help me out?

while not eof(hFile)
line input #hFile,Line$
{split Line$ into parts. Store(d) in sWords() . Easily done in VB6 :-) }
select case sWords(0)
case "ITEM"
if sWords(1)<>CurI tem then
{Print gathered data. See closing remark}
CurItem=sWords( 1)
debug.Print "-------------" ;Signal a new item
{Clear previously gathered data}
endif
case "PRICE"
{do something with the price}
case "QUANTITY"
{do something with the quantity}
case else
Debug.Print "Unrecognis ed : ";sWords(0)
end select
wend

Ofcourse, my suggestion would be to gather all data (price, quantity,etc),
and only print when the current item's number changes (in the IF) ...

Regards,
Rudy Wieser