Help using StringRegExp

[vgt1]

I'm new to AutoIt, and I'm not much of a programmer/code writer to begin with, and right now I'm having some trouble understanding the StringRegExp function.

 

My actual goal that leads me to this question is to make a GUI which takes the place of a MsgBox, because I wanted a message box that was larger and easier to see. I made a function from the GUI example in the help file which I'm trying to resize based on the size of the text string that is passed to it. I had to do a rough estimation of line wraps based on the number of characters and the size I gave the window. That part works well enough for my needs.

 

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to deal with line feeds. I thought if I could count the number of line feeds in a string, I could include that in the window height calculation. But I just don't get the StringRegExp function, nor do I understand the PCRE pattern thing. I hope someone can help explain it to me as you would explain it to a child. 

 

1. First, is this GUI thing even the best method for getting a bigger message box?

 

Here's a test script that I tried to use to count line feeds:

 

local $text = "This is some"&@LF&"text with a few"&@LF&"line feeds to count."

local $lines = StringRegExp($text,'*ANYCRLF',0)
MsgBox(0,"",$lines)

 

2. The help file mentioned *ANYCRLF as finding any of three forms of line feed/carriage return. The above code returns 0 from StringRegExp. What do I put in the pattern to count line feeds?

 

Thanks.

[Simpel]

Hello @vgt1,

welcome to the forum. To count the new lines try StringRegExp($text, “\R”, 0) that will count any unicode new line sequences (untested yet).

There is a UDF by @Melba23 “ExtMsgBox” https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/109096-extended-message-box-new-version-2-aug-18/. Maybe this is helpful and fitting to your needs.

Simpel

 

[FrancescoDiMuro]

50 minutes ago, Simpel said:

To count the new lines try StringRegExp($text, “\R”, 0)

That won't return the number of new line sequences because of the Pattern and the Flag.
It will return 0 or 1 only if SRE matches \R, and nothing more.
Respecting the Majesty and the Elegance of the SRE Patterns of @mikell, maybe this could do the trick:

Global $strString = "This" & @CRLF & _
                    "is" & @CRLF & _
                    "a line" & @CRLF & _
                    "with" & @CRLF & _
                    "carriage returns" & @CRLF & _
                    "and line feeds" & @CRLF
                    

ConsoleWrite("Original string = " & $strString & @CRLF & _
             "Replaced string = " & StringRegExpReplace($strString, "(.*)(\r\n)", "$1 ") & @CRLF & _
             "Number of Replacement (@extended) = " & @extended & @CRLF)

Cheers

Edited October 25, 2018 by FrancescoDiMuro

[Simpel]

@FrancescoDiMuro you’re right.

@vgt1: (*anycrlf) is just an option how to look for new line sequences if you are looking. So you’re pattern is returning 0 because there is nothing you are searching for. You are setting an option only.

Simpel

[iamtheky]

regex is not necessary for this task

local $text = "This is some"&@LF&"text with a few"&@LF&"line feeds to count."

StringReplace($text , @LF , @LF)
msgbox(0, '' , @extended)

 

[mikell]

As Simpel said ExtMsgbox by Melba23 is a nice solution

OTOH, Melba also built StringSize.au3 . This UDF allows to size on the fly any label depending on the size of the string inside
Using it you might create custom message boxes of various self-adaptative sizes
The approach could be : check the size of the string => size the label => size the gui => show the gui

Edited October 25, 2018 by mikell
link added

[dmob]

16 hours ago, vgt1 said:

I because I wanted a message box that was larger and easier to see.

Really, save yourself the trouble and use Melba23's ExtMsgBox. It will fulfill your need and a lot more; it's fully customisable.

[vgt1]

Thanks, the ExtMsgBox does it for me. Now I just need to do/find something for input boxes, but those I can probably make a constant size since I have a smaller variety of messages to display for inputs and no line feeds in them.