Assigning text to a variable. Problem, text contains tabs.

[miles.williams]

I am copying text from an alarm system, writing it to a file, then assigning it to a variable, then entering it into a fault logging / ticketing system, the problem is that sometimes there is a Tab in the alarm text, this is being read as Press Tab and is shifting the focus and causing all sorts of problems, how can I replace the Tab with several spaces ?

I have tried the following :

stringreplace>INSTRUCTIONS, {there is a tab here} ,,INSTRUCTIONS
stringreplace>INSTRUCTIONS,Tab,,INSTRUCTIONS


Any ideas lads and lasses ?

Thanks.

[miles.williams]

Is there anyone out there that can shed some light on the subject ? If my post was a little too complicated, then in summary, I want to character replace the invisible gap (tab) with something else, like 5 "space"s

[miles.williams]

Is there anyone out there that can shed some light on the subject ? If my post was a little too complicated, then in summary, I want to character replace the invisible gap (tab) with something else, like 5 "space"s

- Whoops sorry.

[support]

Something like this:

VBSTART
VBEND
VBEval>Replace("hello world",vbTab,""),new

e.g, if INSTRUCTIONS is your variable containing the string:

VBEVal>Replace("%INSTRUCTIONS%",vbTab,""),INSTRUCTIONS

[miles.williams]

I know nothing about VB yet, but just to clarify :

VBEVal>Replace("%INSTRUCTIONS%",vbTab,""),INSTRUCTIONS

This will replace a tab space (vbTab) with nothing (what is between the "") Is that right ? If this is the case could I replace it with " " ? (seven spaces, not showing up properly) Or would I need to have :

VBEVal>Replace("INSTRUCTIONS%",vbTab,"vbSpace*7"),INSTRUCTIONS

Thanks for the reply.

[support]

Hi,

Yes, my example replaces tab with nothing. You could replace it with seven spaces just by doing:

VBEVal>Replace("%INSTRUCTIONS%",vbTab," "),INSTRUCTIONS

Or:

VBEVal>Replace("%INSTRUCTIONS%",vbTab,Space(7)),INSTRUCTIONS

[miles.williams]

That appears to have not worked, I'll supply the entire section of script that might make things clearer :


Previous to this I have copied and writeln'd text to a file c:\reminstruct.tmp...


Let>linenum=1

ReadLn>c:\reminstruct.tmp,%linenum%,line
Let>instructions=%line%%CR%
Let>linenum=%linenum%+1
label>start1
ReadLn>c:\reminstruct.tmp,%linenum%,line
If>%line%=##EOF##,end1
Let>INSTRUCTIONS=%INSTRUCTIONS%%line%%CR%
Let>linenum=%linenum%+1


Goto>start1
Label>end1


VBSTART
VBEND
VBEVal>Replace("%INSTRUCTIONS%",vbTab,Space(7)),INSTRUCTIONS

message>%instructions%



And the result from this is :

Microsoft VBScript compilation error :1033
Unterminatated string constant

[support]

Something else in the string means VBScript doesn't like it. Here's another way to do it which uses the native StringReplace function:

//Put these two lines at start of script
VBSTART
VBEND

//This line gives us a native variable containing the tab character
VBEval>vbTab,msTab
//This line replaces occurences of msTab with seven spaces
StringReplace>INSTRUCTIONS,msTab, ,INSTRUCTIONS

[multifix]

I noticed in support's example that the VBreplace function had one%sign but Miles' had two. Syntax error?

[Bob Hansen]

Yes, syntax error, should be two.

Perhaps support will edit original posting with both?

[support]

Correct - should have been two - I have edited post accordingly.

[miles.williams]

Thank you guys I was pulling my hair out over that one, it works a treat ! Another problem solved.