Parsing multiple lines (or rows) of text

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RogerM - 21 Jul 2008 19:00 GMT

I'm having trouble coming to grips with how to parse a multiple line string
of text from a bookmark and am hopeful that someone can provide me with
assistance. I need to capture as string variables two separate text strings
from the first line of text and process those two variables. Then check to
see if the bookmark contains another line of text, and if it does, perform
the parsing and processing routine again. And continue that process until
all the lines in the bookmark have been processed.

I can parse the first line of text in the bookmark with the following code,
and that provides me with the two variables (strAgency and strNumber) that I
need for the next step in the routine.

strKSOR = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("bKSOR").Range.Text
strAgencyStart = InStr(strKSOR, "<")
strAgencyEnd = InStr(strKSOR, ">")
strNumberStart = InStr(strKSOR, "#")
strNumberEnd = InStr(strKSOR, "!")
strAgency = Mid(strKSOR, strKSORAgencyStart + 1, strKSORAgencyEnd - 1 -
strKSORAgencyStart)
strNumber = Mid(strKSOR, strKSORNumberStart + 1, strKSORNumberEnd - 1 -
strKSORNumberStart)

I'm guessing that maybe the str...Start and str...End variables should be
declared as Integers, rather than strings, but I don't know if that makes a
difference or not. I've tried using vbCrLf as the End of string label for
the first line, but that always produces an error in the procedure.

I could set up the ActiveDocument so that it the bookmark ("bKSOR") contains
a single one row, two column table for each pair of data instead of simply a
line of text for each pair of data. I experimented with that approach but
couldn't figure out how to parse text out of a table at all, let alone
multiple tables within the same bookmark.

Thanks,
Roger

Reply to this Message

Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 21 Jul 2008 20:47 GMT

What do you want to do with the strAgency and strNumber when you get them?
Also I am assuming that there are multiple Agencies and numbers within the
range of the bookmark.

I would take a different approach, using the Find function.

Signature

Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

> I'm having trouble coming to grips with how to parse a multiple line
> string of text from a bookmark and am hopeful that someone can provide me
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
> Thanks,
> Roger

Reply to this Message

RogerM - 21 Jul 2008 23:17 GMT

Yes, there is the potention for multiple agencies and numbers within the
range of the bookmark, but there would only be one agency and one number on
each line. The "<" ">" "#" and "!" are just characters that I chose to use
within the bookmark to have a consistent label to search for while parsing
the text. The agencies and number are pulled from a database and merged
into a Word .rtf document and I can have some control over how the data is
presented in the Word document. The bookmark might also be empty accept for
the <>#! characters.
If the bookmark range contains multiple agencies, it would look like:

<Lansing Police Department> #08-1001!

<Brentwood County Sheriff Office> #08-278!

"What do you want to do with the strAgency and strNumber when you get them?
"

If we have a copy of the report stored on our network as a pdf file, then I
want to copy that report from one location to a different location. So with
strAgency I check to see what the value equals and I run through a series of
"If Then" statements comparing strAgency with potentially valid strings and
when the code finds a match, then I set use the matching CONST to build a
path to the report file. For example:

If strAgency = "Lansing Police Department" Then
strKSORPath = LNPD & strNumber & "\" & strNumber & ".pdf"
strKSOR_OldPath = LNPD & strNumber & ".pdf"
End If

Where LNPD is declared as Const LNPD = "s:\Scan\LNPD\"
I have to build two path string variables because we used to store all the
reports in the agency folder but then changed to storing them in a subfolder
and assign the report number as the name of the subfolder.

Then I check to make sure the bookmark contained an agency name or not, and
if it's not blank,
Then check to see if we have the pdf file in the source folder, and if it
does exist
Then check to see if the pdf file already exists in the destination folder.
If the pdf file doesn't exist in the destination folder, then copy the
report from the source folder to the destination folder.

If Not strAgency = "" Then
If objFSO.FileExists(strKSORPath) Then
If Not objFSO.FileExists(strDCFKSORPath) Then
FileCopy strKSORPath, strDCFKSORPath
End If
Else
If objFSO.FileExists(strKSOR_OldPath) Then
If Not objFSO.FileExists(strDCFKSORPath) Then
FileCopy strKSOR_OldPath, strDCFKSORPath
End If
End If
End If
End If

I'm sure there is probably a cleaner way to code this, but the way I've
approached it seems to get the job done, provided my bookmark only contains
one agency and it's associated case number.

Roger

> What do you want to do with the strAgency and strNumber when you get them?
> Also I am assuming that there are multiple Agencies and numbers within the
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
>> Thanks,
>> Roger

Reply to this Message

Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 22 Jul 2008 11:21 GMT

The following code uses the Find function to get the each instance of the
agency name and the corresponding number that are located within the
bookmark bKSOR. You should be able to insert the code to do the rest of
your processing before the End If, making use of the Agency.Text and
Number.Text (deleting the MsgBox statements which are just there at the
moment to demonstrate what it does).

Dim myrange As Range
Dim Agency As Range
Dim Number As Range
Set myrange = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("bKSOR").Range
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(Findtext:="\<*\>", Forward:=True,
MatchWildcards:=True, Wrap:=wdFindStop) = True
If Selection.Range.Start >= myrange.Start And Selection.Range.End <=
myrange.End Then
Set Agency = Selection.Range
Set Number = Selection.Range.Duplicate
Agency.Start = Agency.Start + 1
Agency.End = Agency.End - 1
MsgBox Agency.Text
With Number
.MoveEndUntil Cset:="!", Count:=wdForward
.MoveStartUntil Cset:="#", Count:=wdForward
.Start = .Start + 1
End With
MsgBox Number.Text
End If
Loop
End With

Having said that, I am not sure why you are not working directly with the
data from the database rather than going through the .RTF document/Word
route.

Signature

Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

> Yes, there is the potention for multiple agencies and numbers within the
> range of the bookmark, but there would only be one agency and one number
[quoted text clipped - 102 lines]
>>> Thanks,
>>> Roger

Reply to this Message

RogerM - 22 Jul 2008 14:39 GMT

Thank you Doug, that does get me most of the way to my goal. I can know
check the contents of Agency.Text against the list of possible matches and
successfully build the filepath string to the location of the report.pdf
file. However, when I try to execute the actually filecopy portion of the
routine, I keep getting a compile error indicating that I'm trying to Loop
without Do. Here's the code I'm trying to use:

Dim myrange As Range
Dim Agency As Range
Dim Number As Range
Dim strKSORPath As String
Dim strKSOR_OldPath As String

Const LVPD = "S:\Scan\LVPD\"
Const BCSO = "S:\Scan\BCSO\"
Const HPD = "S:\Scan\HPD\"

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

strCaseNumber = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("bCaseFileNumber").Range.Text

Set myrange = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("bKSOR").Range
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(Findtext:="\<*\>", Forward:=True, _
MatchWildcards:=True, Wrap:=wdFindStop) = True
If Selection.Range.Start >= myrange.Start And Selection.Range.End <=
myrange.End Then
Set Agency = Selection.Range
Set Number = Selection.Range.Duplicate
Agency.Start = Agency.Start + 1
Agency.End = Agency.End - 1

With Number
.MoveEndUntil Cset:="!", Count:=wdForward
.MoveStartUntil Cset:="#", Count:=wdForward
.Start = .Start + 1
End With

strDCFKSORPath = "y:\" & strCaseNumber & "\KSOR\" & Number.Text & ".pdf"

If Agency.Text = "Lansing Police Department" Then
strKSORPath = LNPD & Number.Text & "\" & Number.Text & ".pdf"
strKSOR_OldPath = LNPD & Number.Text & ".pdf"
End If
If Agency.Text = "Brentwood County Sheriff Office" Then
strKSORPath = BCSO & Number.Text & "\" & Number.Text & ".pdf"
strKSOR_OldPath = BCSO & Number.Text & ".pdf"
End If
If Agency.Text = "Hometown Police Department" Then
strKSORPath = HPD & Number.Text & "\" & Number.Text & ".pdf"
strKSOR_OldPath = HPD & Number.Text & ".pdf"
End If

If Not objFSO.FileExists(strDCFKSORPath) Then
If objFSO.FileExists(strKSORPath) Then
FileCopy strKSORPath, strDCFKSORPath
Else
If objFSO.FileExists(strKSOR_OldPath) Then
FileCopy strKSOR_OldPath, strDCFKSORPath
End If
End If
MsgBox strKSORPath
MsgBox strKSOR_OldPath

End If
Loop
End With

I know it's the
If Not objFSO.FileExists(strDCFKSORPath) Then
If objFSO.FileExists(strKSORPath) Then
FileCopy strKSORPath, strDCFKSORPath
Else
If objFSO.FileExists(strKSOR_OldPath) Then
FileCopy strKSOR_OldPath, strDCFKSORPath
End If
End If

Section of the code that is causing problems. It seems like that procedure
should be the last thing the code do before looping, but I don't know why
it's causing a compile error.

You asked: "I am not sure why you are not working directly with the data
from the database rather than going through the .RTF document/Word route."

The honest answer is, I don't know how to do so.

> The following code uses the Find function to get the each instance of the
> agency name and the corresponding number that are located within the
[quoted text clipped - 138 lines]
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Roger

Reply to this Message

Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 22 Jul 2008 22:51 GMT

You had a missing End If in the following:

If Not objFSO.FileExists(strDCFKSORPath) Then
If objFSO.FileExists(strKSORPath) Then
FileCopy strKSORPath, strDCFKSORPath
End If 'This End If was missing
Else
If objFSO.FileExists(strKSOR_OldPath) Then
FileCopy strKSOR_OldPath, strDCFKSORPath
End If
End If

I am assuming that the Else belongs to the If Not
objFSO.FileExists(strDCFKSORPath) Then .. End If

Signature

Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

> Thank you Doug, that does get me most of the way to my goal. I can know
> check the contents of Agency.Text against the list of possible matches and
[quoted text clipped - 232 lines]
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Roger

Reply to this Message

RogerM - 22 Jul 2008 23:23 GMT

I looked that over numerous times and never could see it, even with the code
indented in the editor. Thank you.

> You had a missing End If in the following:
>
[quoted text clipped - 249 lines]
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Roger

Reply to this Message

RogerM - 29 Jul 2008 16:46 GMT

Doug, I've run into a problem with the code you suggested. The first Agency
Name/Number pair isn't processed, but if the bookmark contains multiple
Agency/Number pairs, then all the agencies after the first one are
processed. So, if the "bKSOR" contains the following:
<Hometown Police Department> #08-7333!

The code won't pick up the agency/number at all. If "bKSOR" contains:

<Hometown Police Department> #08-7333!

<Hometown Police Department> #08-7344!

Then the code will process the second line and copy the .pdf file for
08-7344.

I don't believe I changed anything of significance to the code sample you
supplied, but here is what I'm using to obtain the Agency.Text and
Number.Text values.

Set myrange = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("bKSOR").Range
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(Findtext:="\<*\>", Forward:=True, _
MatchWildcards:=True, Wrap:=wdFindStop) = True
If Selection.Range.Start >= myrange.Start And Selection.Range.End <=
myrange.End Then
Set Agency = Selection.Range
Set Number = Selection.Range.Duplicate
Agency.Start = Agency.Start + 1
Agency.End = Agency.End - 1
With Number
.MoveEndUntil Cset:="!", Count:=wdForward
.MoveStartUntil Cset:="#", Count:=wdForward
.Start = .Start + 1
End With

>I looked that over numerous times and never could see it, even with the
>code indented in the editor. Thank you.
[quoted text clipped - 252 lines]
>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>> Roger

Reply to this Message

Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 30 Jul 2008 20:30 GMT

I cannot replicate that using the following code:

Dim myrange As Range
Dim Agency As Range
Dim Number As Range
Set myrange = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("bKSOR").Range
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(Findtext:="\<*\>", Forward:=True,
MatchWildcards:=True, Wrap:=wdFindStop) = True
If Selection.Range.Start >= myrange.Start And Selection.Range.End <=
myrange.End Then
Set Agency = Selection.Range
Set Number = Selection.Range.Duplicate
Agency.Start = Agency.Start + 1
Agency.End = Agency.End - 1
MsgBox Agency.Text
With Number
.MoveEndUntil Cset:="!", Count:=wdForward
.MoveStartUntil Cset:="#", Count:=wdForward
.Start = .Start + 1
End With
MsgBox Number.Text
End If
Loop
End With

In a document containing among other things a bookmark "bKSOR" that contains
the following:

<Hometown Police Department> #08-7333!

The message box first displays Hometown Police Department and then it
displays 08-7333

If the bookmark contains

<Hometown Police Department> #08-7333!¶
<Hometown Police Department> #08-7344!

the code selects the first <Hometown Police Department> and the message box
first displays Hometown Police Department and then it displays 08-7333.
Then it selects the second <Hometown Police Department> and the message box
first displays Hometown Police Department and then it displays 08-7344

Signature

Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

> Doug, I've run into a problem with the code you suggested. The first
> Agency Name/Number pair isn't processed, but if the bookmark contains
[quoted text clipped - 292 lines]
>>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>> Roger

Reply to this Message

StevenM - 21 Jul 2008 21:12 GMT

To: RogerM,

There are many different ways of doing this depending on your particular
needs.

For example, if you're parsing a string such as: "xyz<Mr. X>#345!uiv" where
there is a name inside <> and a number inside #! you can use the following
method.

Sub Testthis()
Dim strKSOR As String
Dim strAgency As String
Dim strNumber As String

strKSOR = "xyz<Mr. X>#345!uiv"
strAgency = Right(strKSOR, Len(strKSOR) - InStr(strKSOR, "<"))
strAgency = Left(strAgency, InStr(strAgency, ">") - 1)
strNumber = Right(strKSOR, Len(strKSOR) - InStr(strKSOR, "#"))
strNumber = Left(strNumber, InStr(strNumber, "!") - 1)
MsgBox strAgency & vbCr & strNumber
End Sub

I'm fairly sure that if you gave us a better idea of what the string strKSOR
might look like, you would find you would receive better answers to your
question. Also, in the above example, I assumed that there would be something
in the strKSOR string and so didn't do any checking to make sure that the
string contained the characters <>!#. And in your example, your End & Start
variables should be integers or (better yet) longs, as you assumed. But using
the Right and Left functions as I did, I didn't need to use a Start or End
variable.

Steven Craig Miller

> I'm having trouble coming to grips with how to parse a multiple line string
> of text from a bookmark and am hopeful that someone can provide me with
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
> Thanks,
> Roger

Reply to this Message

RogerM - 21 Jul 2008 23:20 GMT

Steven,
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll work with that some, but I did post a more
detailed explanation of what my data looks like and what I want to do with
it in my reply to Doug's post.

Roger

> To: RogerM,
>
[quoted text clipped - 81 lines]
>> Thanks,
>> Roger

Reply to this Message

StevenM - 22 Jul 2008 12:39 GMT

To: RogerM,

First, let me say that you might have been able to simplify things if you
had used only a octothorp/pound sign to seperate the name from the number. So
instead of:
<Lansing Police Department> #08-1001!

You could have had just: Lansing Police Department #08-1001

The rest seem redundant, but then I don't have the details of the rest of
your project. Nonetheless, I have two examples for you. The first example, I
simply parse the string: "<Name> #Number!"

Sub Testthis001()
Dim strKSOR As String
Dim strAgency As String
Dim strNumber As String

strKSOR = "<Name> #Number!"
If Len(strKSOR) > 4 Then
strAgency = Mid(strKSOR, 2, InStr(strKSOR, ">") - 2)
strNumber = Right(strKSOR, Len(strKSOR) - InStr(strKSOR, "#"))
strNumber = Left(strNumber, Len(strNumber) - 1)
End If
MsgBox strAgency & vbCr & strNumber
End Sub

In the second example, I assume that you have a series of Name/Number pairs,
each on a seperate line. In Word, each line is normally seperated by a
paragraph mark, represented below as "vbCr". I only presented two Name/Number
pairs, but the same code would work with any number of such pairs.

Sub Testthis002()
Dim strKSOR As String
Dim vKSOR As Variant
Dim strAgency As String
Dim strNumber As String
Dim i As Long

strKSOR = "<Name1> #Number1!" & vbCr & "<Name2> #Number2!"
vKSOR = Split(strKSOR, vbCr)
For i = LBound(vKSOR) To UBound(vKSOR)
If Len(vKSOR(i)) > 4 Then
strAgency = Mid(vKSOR(i), 2, InStr(vKSOR(i), ">") - 2)
strNumber = Right(vKSOR(i), Len(vKSOR(i)) - InStr(vKSOR(i), "#"))
strNumber = Left(strNumber, Len(strNumber) - 1)
End If
MsgBox strAgency & vbCr & strNumber
Next i
End Sub

Steven Craig Miller

Reply to this Message

RogerM - 22 Jul 2008 15:22 GMT

Steven, when I run this code from the actual contents of my bookmark text, I
get two MsgBox prompts for the last Ageny Name/Number pair. I haven't had a
chance to incorporate the rest of my routine to see how it works. I don't
think it will cause a problem, but why does the code process the last Agency
Name/Number pair twice.

I can set up the document without the ! sign at the end. I was having
trouble locating the end of each line so I used the ! sign, however, I guess
before I was using vbCrLf instead of just vbCr and as a result kept getting
runtime errors when testing my previous code.

> To: RogerM,
>
[quoted text clipped - 53 lines]
>
> Steven Craig Miller

Reply to this Message

StevenM - 22 Jul 2008 16:15 GMT

To: RogerM,

Re: why does the code process the last Agency Name/Number pair twice.

Without being able to see your code, I cannot say for sure, but I'll make a
guess.

With an extra paragraph mark at the end of your strKSOR string, the split
function would assume that there is an element after the paragraph mark.

vKSOR = Split(strKSOR, vbCr)

There are a number of ways of correcting this problem. For example, in the
example I gave you. I should have put the line:

MsgBox strAgency & vbCr & strNumber

inside the If ... End if statements. That would be one way of correcting the
problem.

But in addition, it also makes sense to remove any paragraph mark at the end
of the string. Thus:

Sub Testthis002()
Dim strKSOR As String
Dim vKSOR As Variant
Dim strAgency As String
Dim strNumber As String
Dim i As Long

strKSOR = "<Name1> #Number1!" & vbCr & "<Name2> #Number2!" & vbCr
If Right(strKSOR, 1) = vbCr Then strKSOR = Left(strKSOR, Len(strKSOR) - 1)
vKSOR = Split(strKSOR, vbCr)
For i = LBound(vKSOR) To UBound(vKSOR)
If Len(vKSOR(i)) > 4 Then
strAgency = Mid(vKSOR(i), 2, InStr(vKSOR(i), ">") - 2)
strNumber = Right(vKSOR(i), Len(vKSOR(i)) - InStr(vKSOR(i), "#"))
strNumber = Left(strNumber, Len(strNumber) - 1)
MsgBox strAgency & vbCr & strNumber
End If
Next i
End Sub

The line:
If Right(strKSOR, 1) = vbCr Then strKSOR = Left(strKSOR, Len(strKSOR) - 1)
removes any paragraph mark at the end of strKSOR, and this means you won't
have one element too many in vKSOR after the split.

Also, the line:
If Len(vKSOR(i)) > 4 Then
Allows you to have have strings which have nothing more than "<>#!", and you
can avoid processing them since they are empty of any real value.

Steven Craig Miller

> Steven, when I run this code from the actual contents of my bookmark text, I
> get two MsgBox prompts for the last Ageny Name/Number pair. I haven't had a
[quoted text clipped - 64 lines]
> >
> > Steven Craig Miller

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