[jawsscripts] Re: inserting a comma after first word in a string?
- From: "Sean Randall" <seanr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 07:57:18 +0100
Geoff,
String manipulation is an important topic to get your head around, and given
what you've been doing previously, you should quite easily be able to grasp
the concepts.
You can use the return value of any function either in a variable, or as
part of another function call.
For instance, to return the position in a string where the first space
appears in a variable you might have:
;--
Var
String address,
Int position
let address = "58 tarrigal road,"
let position = stringContains(address," ")
;--
The variable Position now holds the number 3 - because in "58 tarrigal
road," the first space is the third character (the 5 being the first, 8 the
second, and so on).
By using this variable approach you can check if your position is 0
(indicating no spaces) and act accordingly.
How would you insert a comma before this space, then? Something like:
;--
Let address = stringLeft(address,position -1) +",
"+StringChopLeft(address,position)
;--
And address now equals "58, tarrigal road,"
To explain this code:
The first function we call, stringLeft, returns any leftmost number of
characters from a string. We want the number, in this case. Our position
includes the space, so we want the leftmost characters up to but not
including the space - so we use "position -1" to tell the script that.
The stringChopLeft function takes away any leftmost characters and returns
whatever's left, so after we've added our comma, we chop off everything up
to and including our space, and tack it back on to the end of our address
which now includes a comma.
As you can see from the above example, we've used the returning strings from
the functions as well as our counter variable. Suppose you wanted to put the
number of the address into a variable without having to keep a position?
You could call the stringContains function as part of the stringLeft
function. The second parameter to stringLeft is the number of characters to
return, and stringContains returns the position of a character, so your code
might look like:
;--
Var
String addressNumber
Let addressNumber = stringLeft(address,stringContains(address," ")-1)
;--
Remembering we add the -1 because we don't want the space.
If the layout of what to put where confuses you, you might want to think
about using the "insert function" button in the parameter box of the insert
function dialog box.
I.e.
1. press ctrl+I for insert function, and choose stringLeft.
2. For parameter 1, type address.
3. For parameter 2 ("The number of leftmost characters that will be
extracted."), click Insert Function and choose "stringContains".
4. For parameter 1 here, provide "address"
5. For parameter 2, you want a space in quotes " ".
6. You're returned to your stringLeft function with code already present and
can add your -1 to the end before hitting enter to insert the code.
So hopefully you see that's how you use a return value of the function
inside another function. It's just a matter of using data in exactly the
same way as usual, but rather than storing the information in a variable or
passing it directly to your function as a string, you're generating the
information on-the-fly from other functions.
This can really build up and you have to watch your nesting of brackets,
quotation marks and commas - just remember that all functions need open and
closing parentheses and that each parameter must be separated by a comma.
Righty ho - must dash, early morning start and I'm off into the sunshine to
do some voluntary computer work. I hope this made vague sense - if you can
grasp this one then you're well on your way!
All code untested, and I'm hardly awake - so good luck.
Sean.
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." Napoleon Bonaparte
-----Original Message-----
From: jawsscripts-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:jawsscripts-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Geoff personal
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 7:26 AM
To: jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [jawsscripts] inserting a comma after first word in a string?
Hey Firstly Mr Paul Magill from Aus,, and Mr Don ,
man I sure owe you guys a lot! and a reply and acknowledgement for the last
incredibly detailed and helpful post you sent on my \9 tab splitting up
info.
absolutely fabulous that was! Thank you for that eh.
the reason I haven't replied yet, is that I got busy with other parts of the
code, and to be honest haven't yet had/made time to really sit down and get
down and dirty with either yours or don's last great examples.
But, I will, for at the moment my GetLine functions, which are the only
ones, as you seemed to confirm, that will retain Tabs in order to do the
delineation
for inserting pauses, is doing it ok, but I haven't put in intelligent
enough stuff to stop getting lines when the next line text isn't the
CornFlowerBlue
on black color. which I must work out how to do properly before that will be
a seemless function.
But I'm incredibly greatful for the \n and \9 ideas, that backSlash n is
proving absolutely invaluable for my HotKey help stuff I'm wanting to
formulate
right now into virtual viewer. I never knew about those gems before!
Now On to today's sinario though if I might.
I've got a couple of issues I'm desirous of, ... yep just a little more
assistance with, <sigh,> regarding what can be done with strings, as
against doing things directly OnScreen?
1. I have a situation where I need to try and insert a comma between a
street Number and streetName, in a string picked up in a GetTextInRect
string, to
assist firstPass immediate comprehension by the user,of situations like the
following addresses:
50A warrigal road,
58 tarrigal road,
45C seaforth avenue,
such that they speak like:
50A, Warrigal road,
58, terrigal road,
45C, seaforth avenue,
etc.
I'm wondering what people think might be the bestest way to do this?
e.g. these often appear in a whole table-like matrix, so I've grabbed all
the strings with GetTextInRects, so I don't really at all wanna have to do
direct
Onscreen things like mess with Cursors, like SaveCursor, InvisibleCursor,
go to certain point on the screen, GetWord, addItToString, +","
add a comma,
NextWord () GetWord (), add that to string, ... etc.
That'd be just sooooo horribly messy and inelegant!
Especially given that I'm calling this via an OnFocus frame event, which
triggers the script to check the FrameName at Cursor, and if it's x, go to Y
rectangle
and grab and speak text in there etc, and I think the above way would prove
waay to slow surely, to be useable?
Plus I'm not even sure I'd know how to reliably build my String that way
anywayz! So, I'm wanting to know, how one could move to certain points in a
pregatehred string
like that?
Like I'm pretty horribly green in script land, so this'll be painfully
obvious to you pros out there,
but, well like Although I've been Told that the
"StringContains"
funcion, somehow, returns, the first position of the beginning character,
of the string being looked for,
Such that I half dimly thought I might be able to do something like,
if StringContains (MyStringToLookIn, "\0") then
; i.e. I'm asking it if my string has any spaces in it,
How exactly might I utilize any ability of this function, to perhaps stop at
the first space it sees, possibly enabling me to somehow then extract how
many
characters in from the left that was? In order to insert my comma?
or how else do people think I might exactly code this up such that I could
then insert a comma at that point,
in, "MyStringToLookIn," variable?
And then put the whole thing back together such that it inserted the pause
at the right spot?
Like really, I reckon I still just soooo don't get this idea of how to
utilize what a function, "Returns",
and subsequently utilizing those as fodda/data for other functions to work
on?
I'ts logic I just haven't gotten my head properly around yet.
Like I can sorta use functions, like straight, but I don't really yet get
how one begins to use, the data any given function, "returns," in any kind
of
useful way in another function I don't think.
Like I believe I mostly understand the, If then ElIf, else, Endif cycle,
But this utilizing returns from other functions business, and how to make
another function readily be able to accept such data, presumably by their
parameters
at the top, ... that's kind of all a closed book to me at present.
Like I dimly thought that if I knew how many characters to the right, the
first space was, I could maybe somehow then do a StringChopLeft type deal,
for
which you've seemingly gotta specify a character count,
which I thought then might've allowed me to save that chopped off section,
hopefully my streetNumber word as the first Word of the string, (which of
course I guess
might actually end up being two numbers separated by a slash as well just to
make things more complicated,
as in apartments like 12/106 xx ?Street, blah.
into a temporary variable,
then Save the chopped string into another temporary variable,
then do a string concatination with a comma in the mniddle of the two etc.
could that be done though? would it work? would there be some easier way?
it all sounds a rather hotchPotch method though?
But, would anyone care to suggest anything or provide me with any exemplery
code as to how I might get around this one?
Like I mean can one do, NextWord type functions on Strings, like you can
OnScreen?
I was sure one would have to be able to utilize them as flexibly as the
OnScreen stuff, but, ... well my knowledge of the String functions is at
present
just too limited to work out exactly how I might do it?
Thanks heaps for any help on this one. I think I'll do these situations one
post at a time, it'll be simpler for replies.
Thanks again.
Geoff Chapman.
__________
Visit and contribute to The JAWS Script Repository http://jawsscripts.com
View the list's information and change your settings at
http://www.freelists.org/list/jawsscripts
__________
Visit and contribute to The JAWS Script Repository http://jawsscripts.com
View the list's information and change your settings at
http://www.freelists.org/list/jawsscripts
Other related posts: