Has anyone written an 'UnFormat' routine for Delphi?
What I'm imagining is the inverse of SysUtils.Format and looks something like this
UnFormat('a number %n and another %n',[float1, float2]);
So you could unpack a string into a series of variables using format strings.
I've looked at the 'Format' routine in SysUtils, but I've never used assembly so it is meaningless to me.
This is called scanf in C, I've made a Delphi look-a-like for this :
function ScanFormat(const Input, Format: string; Args: array of Pointer): Integer;
var
InputOffset: Integer;
FormatOffset: Integer;
InputChar: Char;
FormatChar: Char;
function _GetInputChar: Char;
begin
if InputOffset <= Length(Input) then
begin
Result := Input[InputOffset];
Inc(InputOffset);
end
else
Result := #0;
end;
function _PeekFormatChar: Char;
begin
if FormatOffset <= Length(Format) then
Result := Format[FormatOffset]
else
Result := #0;
end;
function _GetFormatChar: Char;
begin
Result := _PeekFormatChar;
if Result <> #0 then
Inc(FormatOffset);
end;
function _ScanInputString(const Arg: Pointer = nil): string;
var
EndChar: Char;
begin
Result := '';
EndChar := _PeekFormatChar;
InputChar := _GetInputChar;
while (InputChar > ' ')
and (InputChar <> EndChar) do
begin
Result := Result + InputChar;
InputChar := _GetInputChar;
end;
if InputChar <> #0 then
Dec(InputOffset);
if Assigned(Arg) then
PString(Arg)^ := Result;
end;
function _ScanInputInteger(const Arg: Pointer): Boolean;
var
Value: string;
begin
Value := _ScanInputString;
Result := TryStrToInt(Value, {out} PInteger(Arg)^);
end;
procedure _Raise;
begin
raise EConvertError.CreateFmt('Unknown ScanFormat character : "%s"!', [FormatChar]);
end;
begin
Result := 0;
InputOffset := 1;
FormatOffset := 1;
FormatChar := _GetFormatChar;
while FormatChar <> #0 do
begin
if FormatChar <> '%' then
begin
InputChar := _GetInputChar;
if (InputChar = #0)
or (FormatChar <> InputChar) then
Exit;
end
else
begin
FormatChar := _GetFormatChar;
case FormatChar of
'%':
if _GetInputChar <> '%' then
Exit;
's':
begin
_ScanInputString(Args[Result]);
Inc(Result);
end;
'd', 'u':
begin
if not _ScanInputInteger(Args[Result]) then
Exit;
Inc(Result);
end;
else
_Raise;
end;
end;
FormatChar := _GetFormatChar;
end;
end;
I know it tends to scare people, but you could write a simple function to do this using regular expressions
'a number (.*?) and another (.*?)
If you are worried about reg expressions take a look at www.regexbuddy.com and you'll never look back.
I tend to take care of this using a simple parser. I have two functions, one is called NumStringParts which returns the number of "parts" in a string with a specific delimiter (in your case above the space) and GetStrPart returns the specific part from a string with a specific delimiter. Both of these routines have been used since my Turbo Pascal days in many a project.
function NumStringParts(SourceStr,Delimiter:String):Integer;
var
offset : integer;
curnum : integer;
begin
curnum := 1;
offset := 1;
while (offset <> 0) do
begin
Offset := Pos(Delimiter,SourceStr);
if Offset <> 0 then
begin
Inc(CurNum);
Delete(SourceStr,1,(Offset-1)+Length(Delimiter));
end;
end;
result := CurNum;
end;
function GetStringPart(SourceStr,Delimiter:String;Num:Integer):string;
var
offset : integer;
CurNum : integer;
CurPart : String;
begin
CurNum := 1;
Offset := 1;
While (CurNum <= Num) and (Offset <> 0) do
begin
Offset := Pos(Delimiter,SourceStr);
if Offset <> 0 then
begin
CurPart := Copy(SourceStr,1,Offset-1);
Delete(SourceStr,1,(Offset-1)+Length(Delimiter));
Inc(CurNum)
end
else
CurPart := SourceStr;
end;
if CurNum >= Num then
Result := CurPart
else
Result := '';
end;
Example of usage:
var
st : string;
f1,f2 : double;
begin
st := 'a number 12.35 and another 13.415';
ShowMessage('Total String parts = '+IntToStr(NumStringParts(st,#32)));
f1 := StrToFloatDef(GetStringPart(st,#32,3),0.0);
f2 := StrToFloatDef(GetStringPart(st,#32,6),0.0);
ShowMessage('Float 1 = '+FloatToStr(F1)+' and Float 2 = '+FloatToStr(F2));
end;
These routines work wonders for simple or strict comma delimited strings too. These routines work wonderfully in Delphi 2009/2010.