Find string in text file only if at start of line?

[emendelson]

I can think of many inefficient ways to do this, but I wonder if there's a fast an efficient one. I

'm writing a script that reads in a text file and searches for a string like the following at the start of a line.

FONT = CONSOLAS

I don't want the search to find the same string in a line that reads something like:

rem FONT=CONSOLAS

I see that I can use FileReadLine to read the entire line (and maybe strip whitespace for consistency) and then use StringLeft to test the start of the line for REM or FONT, but is there a way to search ONLY for a string that is at the start of a line?

I think the answer may be obvious, but I can't figure out what it might be.

 

 

 

 

[jchd]

Try this:

Local $sText = FileRead("myfile.txt")
Local $Found = StringRegExp($sText, "(?im)^\s*FONT\s*=\s*CONSOLAS\b")
MsgBox(0, "Result", "Search string was " & ($Found ? "" : "not ") & "found")

 

[emendelson]

That works perfectly. Thank you!

[emendelson]

I'm not sure if this question belongs in a new thread, but it seems relevant enough to this one.

I've been spending the past hour trying to figure out how to get the line number of the text string (the line number after the newline character tested at the start of the regex). I want to read the line with the found string and copy it into another file, and can't find a method. Is it possible to combine the test for the string and the test for the line number in a single function?

[Melba23]

emendelson,

Just ask the RegEx to extract the whole line:

#include <Array.au3>

$sText = "Not a line we want to read" & @CRLF & _
         "FONT = CONSOLAS - Remainder of line we do want" & @CRLF & _
         "rem FONT = CONSOLAS - But not this one"

Local $aFound = StringRegExp($sText, "(?im)^\s*FONT\s*=\s*CONSOLAS.*$", 3)

_ArrayDisplay($aFound, "", Default, 8)

All I did was to extend the capturing group to the end if the line and ask for matches to be returned rather than a simple True/False.

M23

[emendelson]

Thank you - but I think I must be too much of a newbie to understand how to use this. The _ArrayDisplay keeps telling me that the row number is 0, no matter how many lines I add to the string. Am I missing something really obvious? (That's very likely, unfortunately.)

[Melba23]

emendelson,

The RegEx pulls the whole line ready for copying to the new file, so you have no need to know the actual line number. That is what you said you wanted:

Quote

 I want to read the line with the found string and copy it into another file

The "0" refers to the first element of the returned array from the RegEx - nothing at all to do with the line number within the original file. So all you need to do is use $aFound[0] as the data to write to the new file.

Clearer now?

M23

[emendelson]

Ah! I get it! You're right - that's all I needed, and I was too fixated on getting the line number to see that what you gave me was exactly what I was asking for...

Those three dots in the preceding line represent the three times I slapped my forehead after reading this.

Thank you again!

[Melba23]

emendelson,

Glad we got it straightened out. And do not hit yourself too much - RegExes are really difficult to understand (I consider them the most difficult thing I have ever tried to learn in programming) and I stand in awe of the RegEx gurus around here.

M23