How to evaluate a string ?

[GO7]

Hi all !

Here is my problem : I want to evaluate a string but I can't make it work with Eval() or Number(). Here is an example :

$a = 2
$b = 3
$eq = "a^b"
;THOSE 3 LINES CANNOT BE CHANGED !

$eq = StringReplace($eq,"a",$a)
$eq = StringReplace($eq,"b",$b)
$res = Number($eq)

msgbox(0,"Evaluation",$eq & "=" & $res);will produce 2^3=2

The problem is that the number() fonction automatically stops when a character is detected, like the "^" in "2^3"

Number(2^3) will produce the right answer (8) but Number("2^3") equals Number("2") = 2

Anyone know how to correctly evaluate a random equation ?

Thanks a lot in advance

[CyberSlug]

Eval and Number probably do not work the way you expect; you cannot evaluate an arithmetic expression with those functions. Look at the documentation examples for those functions to see their intended use.

Here's what you need to do:

1) Write out the string to a secondary AutoIt script that runs.

2) The secondary AutoIt script writes its output to a temp file.

3) Your main script gets the value from the temp file and deletes the secondary script and temp file

$a = 2
$b = 3
$eq = $a & "^" & $b

$AUTOIT = '"C:\Program Files\AutoIt3\AutoIt3.exe"'
FileWriteLine("C:\tempEval.au3", '$result = ' & $eq)
FileWriteLine("C:\tempEval.au3", 'FileWriteLine("C:\tempResult.txt", $result)')
RunWait($AUTOIT & "C:\tempEval.au3")
$eval = FileReadLine("C:\tempResult.txt")
FileDelete("C:\tempResult.txt")
FileDelete("C:\tempEval.au3")

MsgBox(4096,"", $eval)

Edited July 5, 2004 by CyberSlug

[GO7]

Thanks ! It seems to work !

But it's a pity that there's no other way to do this arithmetic evaluation...

Eval() or Number() should do the job...

I'm going to use this script to find an answer to a random equation... So I need to brute force it...

With so much things to do for each test (multiple nested for 0 to 9 next) my script won't be very effective and way to sloooooooooow

Anyway thanks for your help !

[Nutster]

I have Exec on my to do list. It will determine a value using variables, operators and certain functions. It will not allow you to call potentially destructive functions, like RegDelete(), but will allow purely math functions like Sin(). It is a little ways down the list, after a bunch of things, like work.