Reading text files

19 Sep 2006 7:38 PM

jonathandrott

I'm trying to read specific information from a text file. I need to
get stuff like invoice date, invoice number and account number
(9/18/06, 586007, 1543 respectively) i was able to use a stream reader
to display the text in a textbox for viewing, but i want to pick these
items out. I don't even know where to start.

       ?E?W1 .?F?W0        Invoice Date 9/18/06
                                 Invoice No.    586007

                                           PO#
                      RTL#2650000023
?-1
               ?-0
   Ship-To                       |Bill-To

|Acct#- Rte Slm#

TO | CHARGE| 1543 0 1

0.00
?-1
?-0
Qty SUM ------------Description----------------Stock-#--- Itm -Price--
---Total---

19 Sep 2006 7:57 PM

HKSHK

Dear Mr. Drott,

The procedure would be like this:

1. Declare some string variable (e.g. x As String, InvoiceDate As
String, ...)
2. Declare 3 integer variable (e.g. posi As Integer, t As Integer,
StartData As Integer)
3. Open the file
4. Read file into a string variable
x = sr.ReadToEnd()

5. Get the position of invoice date
posi = Instr(x.ToUpper,"INVOICE DATE")

6. Go to the actual start of the date.
If posi is greater than 0 the string was found.
Then add the length of the string (12 characters)
to the position to start right after it and search for the number.
   If posi>0 Then
   posi=posi+12
     For t = posi To x.Length
      If Strings.Mid(x,t,1)<>" " Then
      StartData = t
      Exit For
      End If
     Next
   End If

7. Go to the end of the date
For t = StartData To x.Length
If Strings.Mid(x,t,1)=" " then
InvoiceString = Strings.Mid(x,StartData,t-StartData)
Exit For
End If
Next

Best Regards,

HKSHK
jonathandr***@gmail.com wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

> I'm trying to read specific information from a text file. I need to
> get stuff like invoice date, invoice number and account number
> (9/18/06, 586007, 1543 respectively) i was able to use a stream reader
> to display the text in a textbox for viewing, but i want to pick these
> items out. I don't even know where to start.
>
>
>
>
>
>        ?E?W1 .?F?W0        Invoice Date 9/18/06
>                                  Invoice No.    586007
>
>                                            PO#
>                       RTL#2650000023
> ?-1
>                ?-0
>    Ship-To                       |Bill-To
> |Acct#- Rte Slm#
>    TO                |            CHARGE| 1543    0     1
>                |             |ent: ees pck: SP
>          |       |Driver Collect:
>                                  |                                |
>    0.00
> ?-1
>                ?-0
> Qty SUM ------------Description----------------Stock-#--- Itm -Price--
> ---Total---
>

19 Sep 2006 8:05 PM

jonathandrott

thanks for all the info. let me cruch some of this and see if i can
get it working. thanks again.

19 Sep 2006 8:29 PM

jonathandrott

i'm sorry this is a first for me. (not quite understanding everything)
is the code below correct? how can i output the date to a lable to
test if it worked? lblTest.text = InvoiceDate?

'Try to read in the Invoice Date
        Dim InvoiceDate, x As String
        Dim posi, t, StartData As Integer
        myReader = New IO.StreamReader(txtReadFile.Text)
        x = myReader.ReadToEnd
        posi = InStr(x.ToUpper, "INVOICE DATE")
        If posi > 0 Then
            posi = posi + 12
            For t = posi To x.Length
                If Strings.Mid(x, t, 1) <> "" Then
                    StartData = t
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next
        End If
        For t = StartData To x.Length
            If Strings.Mid(x, t, 1) = "" Then
                InvoiceDate = Strings.Mid(x, StartData, t - StartData)

                Exit For
            End If
        Next