Read strings separated with a semi-colon from an Ascii file

Community,

I had a task to do and solved it, but I like to discuss if my solution is a good one (code, speed, etc.) or if someone knows a better solution or have at least some ideas or hints how to do it in a more elegant way.
I only want to use Flexscript. So no C++ code and therefore no compiling.

All I want to do is to read from an Ascii file strings which are separated with semi-colons (";").
My file (Sample_AsciiFileRead_TD.txt) looks like this:

 
12345;123;98765;
54321;321;56789;

I made an User Command to do the job.

Name: TD_ReadStringsFromFile
Parameters: (str PathFilename)
Description: User command to read strings seperated by semi-colon from a file.
Example: TD_ReadStringsFromFile(concat(cdir(),"\userproject s\\SampleModels\\Sample_AsciiFileRead_TD.txt"));
Code:

// USER COMMAND TO READ STRINGS SEPERATED BY SEMICOLON FROM A FILE
// LOCAL VARIABLES
string sPathFileName = parstr(1);        // PATH AND FILENAME
string sReadLine = "";                  // READ LINE FROM FILE
int iReadLineLength = 0;                // STRING LENGTH OF READ LINE
string sSeperator = ";";                // STRING SEPERATOR
int iPositionSeperator = 0;                    // POSITION OF SEPERATOR
string sFoundString = "";               // FOUND STRING
int iNumberOfFoundStrings = 0;          // NUMBER OF FOUND STRINGS
int iOutputConsole = 0;                  // SWITCH FOR PRINT INTO OUTPUT CONSOLE FOR DEBUG
// IF FILE EXISTS
if(fileexists(sPathFileName))
{
// OPEN FILE FOR READ
fileopen(sPathFileName,"r");
// LOOP UNTIL END OF FILE IS REACHED
     while(!endoffile())
     {
// READ LINE FROM FILE
           sReadLine = filereadline();
// PRINT INTO OUTPUT CONSOLE
           if(iOutputConsole) {pr();pt(sReadLine);}
// IF NOT END OF FILE
           if(!endoffile())
           {
// // LOOP UNTIL STRING IS EMPTY
                  while(stringlen(sReadLine) > 0)
                  {
// INCREMENT NUMBER OF FOUND STRINGS
                         iNumberOfFoundStrings = iNumberOfFoundStrings + 1;
// STRING LENGTH
                         iReadLineLength = stringlen(sReadLine);
                         if(iOutputConsole) {pr();pt("iReadLineLength: ");pf(iReadLineLength);}
// FOUND POSITION SEPERATOR
                         iPositionSeperator = stringsearch(sReadLine,sSeperator,1);
                         if(iOutputConsole) {pr();pt("iPositionSeperator: ");pf(iPositionSeperator);}
// STORE FOUND STRING
                         sFoundString = stringcopy(sReadLine,1,iPositionSeperator);
                         {pr();pt("sFoundString ");pt(numtostring(iNumberOfFoundStrings,0,0));pt(" : ");pt(sFoundString);}
// NEW START POSITION FOR NEXT POSITION SEPERATOR SEARCH
                         iPositionSeperator = iPositionSeperator + 2;
                         if(iOutputConsole) {pr();pt("iPositionSeperator: ");pf(iPositionSeperator);}
// CUT READ LINE BY ALREADY FOUND STRING
                         sReadLine = stringcopy(sReadLine,iPositionSeperator,sReadLine - iPositionSeperator);
                         if(iOutputConsole) {pr();pt("sReadLine: ");pt(sReadLine);}
                  }
           }
     }
// CLOSE FILE
fileclose();
//WRITE TO OUTPUTCONSOLE
pr();pt("TD_ReadStringsFromFile executed !");
//RETURN ONE
     return 1 ;
}
else
{
// PRINT INTO OUTPUT CONSOLE
pr();pt("File: ");pt(sPathFileName);pt(" does not exist!");
}

So in general what I am doing is to go through the file until I reach endoffile(). I search for the colon, take first string, and then cut the read string and search for the next colon until the cut read string is empty.
Maybe it would have been easier if there would be a command like endofline(). But I did not found it, so that’s why I took this way.
Another good command might be to have something like readc() which only reads one character.
Or which would be just wonderful would be a command like readstringuntil() which reads a string from a defined position until it founds the separator, e.g. readstringuntil(1,“;”). Reads from position 1 until if founds the “;” and returns the string.
But maybe I overseen something and there is already a more elegant way to do it.

Any suggestions, ideas, hints?

Thanks in advance.
tom the (A)tom

P.S:: The code looks a little bit weird, because of the format. No idea how to change it.
P.P.S.: I attach my model and the files, which are not finished yet.

Tom,

I think, given the commands you have, it is about the only solution.

I've done similar thinks by replacing ";" and "," by "," and "." to get german csv files, but I've done it in C++ in a DLL. So it is C++ but it is no compiling and you could call it with a usercommand. And within C++ there are a lot of extra commands to deal with File operations.

But again, within Flexsim, I think you did a good job.

Steven

I would like to open a file for output, similar to the file reading example in this thread. I am hoping to create the output file with a unique filename, but I do not see any type of filecreate() command within Flexscript. I would also like to be able to append to an existing file when I write to it, but do not see any way to specify the choice of either "append" or "overwrite" when writing to a file from Flexscript.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do these two things (creating unique output filename and appending to existing file)? Thanks very much.

Hi,

To create a file use fileopen.

Overwrite the file use: fileopen("c:/test.txt","w")
Append to a file: fileopen("c:/test.txt","a")

Lars-Olof

There is an example in the download section Sample_AsciiFileReadWrite_TD, which I hope you already found

http://www.flexsim.com/community/for...do=file&id=176

But back to your questions:
If you want to append to a file, do not use “w” but “a”.

Write
fileopen(sPathFileName,"w");

Append
fileopen(sPathFileName,"a");

As far as I know will the file created if it does not exist. I checked it and it is working.