Easy question from a beginer

[vfaulkner]

Hello,

I am new to Autoit Script and coding in general, and would like to use it to streamline some repetitive work. Here is what I need the script to do:

1. Open a .txt file (Event Creator.txt) from my desktop (C:\Users\VFaulkner\Desktop)

2. Copy lines 2,4,6, and so on from that text

3. Paste those lines into the appropriate points of another .txt file (Event HTML.txt) also from my desktop (C:\Users\VFaulkner\Desktop)

My job requires that I create standard webpages for different events. This seems to me to be a way to paste the different fields into the appropriate places of html code which I can then just copy and paste on our website.

Any help would be appreciated!

[iamtheky]

id go with learning these:

FileOpen
FileRead
FileReadLine
FileWrite
FileWriteLine
FileClose

[vfaulkner]

Thanks.

Would this be the proper syntax for the first two?

FileOpen("Event Creator.txt", 0)

FileRead ( "Event Creator.txt" )

When I run this it does not appear to start notepad or open the right file. Sorry--I'm new to all of this.

[iamtheky]

that would if the file were relative, and take a look at fileread closely: you have options to use the handle from your fileopen or the full path of the filename. one or the other may be more suitable depending on your needs.

$handle = FileOpen ("The whole path and filename" , 0)
$Read = FileRead ($handle)
msgbox (0, '' , $Read)

Edited November 1, 2011 by boththose

[somdcomputerguy]

There is examples in the Help file for all the AutoIt functions.

[water]

It depends on the size of the file.

Many single FileRead calls slow down your script. If the file isn't too large you could do a _FileReadToArray to read the whole file into an array.

Then loop through the array and select those lines you want to write to a new file.

Something like:

$aFileRead = _FileReadToArray("C:\Users\VFaulkner\Desktop")            ; Read the whole file into an array
$hFileWrite = FileOpen("C:\Users\VFaulkner\Desktop\Event HTML.txt", 1) ; Open the output file in append mode
For $i = 2 to $aFileRead[0] Step 2                                     ; Take every second line and write it to the output file
   FileWrite($hFileWrite, $aFileRead[$i])
Next
FileClose($hFileWrite)                                                 ; close the output file

What is still missing is some error checking. Do all files exist? Does the input file have at least 2 lines?

Edited November 1, 2011 by water

[GEOSoft]

Is there something common to the text of the lines you are attempting to read? I'm pretty sure you don't want to just read every second line of text.

@water

You meant

Many single FileReadLine calls slow down your script.

did you not? FileReadLine() is the slowest possible method there is to read the data from a file whereas FileRead() is quite fast since you only read that file one time, retrieve the data and then either close the file or write the changed data back to it one time.

[water]

@GeoSoft

Sure, I meant FileReadLine

[vfaulkner]

Still having trouble getting notepad to open the file. Here are the first 2 lines:

; Script Start - Add your code below here

FileOpen("C:\Users\VFaulkner\Desktop\Event Creator.txt", 0)

When I run it nothing appears to happen. Shouldn't I see notepad open with the file?

Edited November 1, 2011 by vfaulkner

[water]

FileOpen does nothing "visible". It opens the files for later read or write operations and just returns a handle to the opened file. This handle has to be used by FileRead/FileWrite.

Edited November 1, 2011 by water

[GEOSoft]

If you want to actually see the file contents using the default text editor just use ShellExecute()

ShellExecute("C:\Users\VFaulkner\Desktop\Event Creator.txt")

[vfaulkner]

How can I make a line of text a variable? As @GEOSoft said, I am not going to copy every 2nd line; rather I want to copy line 2, line 4, and line 6.

Thus I want to open a file:

$event_creator = FileOpen("C:\Users\VFaulkner\Desktop\Event Creator.txt", 0)

Read that file:

FileReadLine( "$event_creator" , 2)

Then turn lines 2, 4, and 6 into a variable (this part I don't know how to do)

and insert them into a new document:

$new_html = FileOpen("C:\Users\VFaulkner\Desktop\Event HTML.txt", 1)

; Check if file opened for writing OK

If $new_html = -1 Then

MsgBox(0, "Error", "Unable to open file.")

Exit

EndIf

FileWrite($new_html, "$Line_2")

FileWrite($new_html, "$Line_4")

FileWrite($new_html, "$Line_6")

Thanks

[martin]

You need to spend some time with the help, reading the examples and trying them out. The help has answers to all your questions. You need to learn the basics of how to use AutoIt and since you appear to have no programming experience, it will take some time.

There are lots of people here who will help with different aspects but at the moment you want to be told how to do something instead of learning how to do it. Search for tutorials etc.