FileWrite and #Include same file?

[longxx]

Hi all:

I have seen some other program does this, if certain TXT files doesn't exist, it will generate the TXT file itself, then use it as reference for future uses

For example. I tried to put this at beginning of my file

If FileExists("Config.txt") Then 
Else
FileWriteLine("config.txt", "$a=1")
EndIf

#include "config.txt"

But the program won't run, says config.txt is not available, I do not want to pack the config.txt together,

I want to be able to generate it on the fly.

Any solution?

thanks

Edited August 24, 2010 by longxx

[SublimePorte]

#include packs the file inside (when you compile), that's why you can't do it.

If you want to do it, just make sure there's always a config.txt file that exists, even if it's empty.

P.S just in case you think putting the include directive after the logic test (which creates the file) should get you around this, it shouldn't. include directives are processed before any logic in the your program, when compiling.

Edited August 24, 2010 by SublimePorte

[BrewManNH]

The #include keyword is called a pre-processor, meaning it gets processed before the script. If it doesn't exist, the script won't run at all. One thing you can do though is to have the file that checks for/creates Config.txt, run the actual script. If you do it that way, you'd still need to have 2 files before it runs.

If you wanted to get overly fancy, you can even have the first script create the second script and then run it, but that's a bit much.

Here's a small example of how that would work:

$File = Fileopen("C:\temp\test2.au3", 2)
FileWriteLine($File, 'MsgBox(0, "Test", "Test2.au3")')
FileClose($File)
Run("C:\Program Files\Autoit3\Autoit3.exe" & " C:\Temp\Test2.au3")

If you are going to be compiling it, you'd need to have your first script run itself using the /AutoIt3ExecuteScript command line switch so that it can run the second script, instead of using AutoIt3.exe unless you know that the computer has AutoIt3 installed.

[longxx]

thanks for the replies. It makes sense now.

Reason I wrote my script like that is to follow this example of "INCLUDE"

Don't you think it's bit misleading? It makes you think the INCLUDE acts as a function executes line by line

;;; TIME.AU3 ;;;
MsgBox(0,"", "The time is " & @HOUR & ":" & @MIN & ":" & @SEC)

;;; SCRIPT.AU3 ;;;
#include "TIME.AU3"
MsgBox(0,"", "Example")
#include "TIME.AU3"
Exit

; Running script.au3 will output three message boxes:
; one with the time, one with 'Example', and another with the time.

I still want to know if there is a way to use the same file to generate a TEXT file and use it as reference next time,

BreManNH you method is good idea, but it requires to run a different file next time, which is not what I wanted..

thx

Edited August 24, 2010 by longxx

[BrewManNH]

You don't need an include for that, you just need a fileopen("Config.txt") and a fileread or filereadline. Includes are for including additional code so that you don't have to copy and paste it into your script and trying to figure out which parts to copy and paste, they're basically a set of pre-written functions, and you only call the ones you need, as you need them.

[kaotkbliss]

Simple answer is yes, you can write to a file that does not exist yet (your program creates the file) then use it later on

This line in one of my codes does just that

FileWriteLine(@ScriptDir & "\taba.cfg", $file)

If the taba.cfg file does not exist, then it is created and the contents of $file are written to it.

Elsewhere in the code I use

Local $remtaba

_FileReadToArray(@ScriptDir & "\taba.cfg", $remtaba)

to read the contents of the file into an array to be used by the code.

[longxx]

Brew and kaotkbliss, thanks for the help.

I am able to use FileRead to read the content of my TEXT into a variable,

This is certainly a solution, but I very much prefer to load them becoming part of my actual script,

the reason is my config.txt look like this:

For example my

$a = 32000 ;  the time interval 
$hotkey_esc = '{NUMPADDIV}' ; key to terminate this script
$hotkey_reset = '{PAUSE}' ; hotkey to reset the timer

as you can see this is basically c&p from the script, this way user can easily change the variables with the instruction following,

by "FileRead" or "ReadArray" it won't be able to let out the instruction behind the semicolon

It will be best if there is a way to do that,

if not I could live with the current suggestions, but wont be as ideal.

thanks

[kaotkbliss]

You would probably make better use of iniread and iniwrite. Same solution, if the ini doesn't exist it will be created, but you can use an iniread before any ini is even written because you set the default value if there is none.

Later in the script when the user makes a change, it can be recorded in the ini and become the default next time the script is run.

*edit*

for an example

$starup=iniread(@ScriptDir & "\taba.ini", "setting" , 1 , "something")

$startup will read the ini (none exists) so it will take the value of 'something'

Later the user does something that changes the value of $startup to 'another'.

So you iniwrite(@ScriptDir & "\taba.ini", "setting" , 1 , $startup)

next time you run the script, $startup will perform the same iniread, but this time there is a value stored so $startup=another

Edited August 24, 2010 by kaotkbliss

[maqleod]

This is what I use for inis, this will read the ini section if it exists (obviously it won't if the file does not exist), otherwise it will create the file and the section. This particular example prompts for information to fill the section with, but you can write whatever you want to the section.

$val = iniread("C:\sys.ini","0202","2020",0)
    if $val = 0 then
        $text = InputBox("Enter text","Enter your text here:","","*")
        iniWrite("C:\sys.ini","0202","2020",$text)
    EndIf

Edited August 25, 2010 by maqleod

[longxx]

Wow Thanks to kaotkbliss and maqleod, ReadIni works like a charm for me

a slight drawback is it always also includes the text after the semicolon,

according to this wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file#Example

ini files are allowed to add instruction after the semicolon

It's not a big problem, I moved the instruction to above each line

it doesn't have strict format requirement like using "ReadLine",

thanks again!

Edited August 25, 2010 by longxx