Parse Functions for FileNames and URL's

[jhbell]

Parse Functions for FileNames and URL's

Development Guidance requested:

I have found it useful to have a function that returns appropriate parts of

file names and URL's. I couldn't find anything in the forums so I went back and

upsized my old DOS 'C' programs to 'AU3'

I appreciate there is a UDF _Splitpath function in the forum but it is cumbersome

in that you need to set up variables which will then be loaded with each part.

I have developed 4 inline functions which will parse both filenames and URL's.

There are however different choices on where to delimit the parse.

Below is what I return now and the options as I see them compared with the results from

_SplitPath($str, $drive, $dir, $file, $ext) as posted in these forums.

Note: that _Splitpath splits my _ParseRoot result into $Drive and $Dir.

I did not do this since it is easy to strip off the first two chars of Root if required.

Also SplitPath was not designed for URL's and their stubs.

***I'd appreciate your feedback on my choices before I post the functions as URL's.***

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It would be even better if they could be included in the next distribution's

"include library" since I think they are useful enough. How do I submit them for this?

I have followed the format of the existing "include"d functions and would be happy to do

user guide pages.

Some Examples:

"C:" & _ParseName($filename) & ".txt" = To change type of file like in Html2txt!!

If _ParseRoot($filename) = "D:" Then .... = To check Source drive

"C:\dir\" & "My New File" & _ParseExt($filename) = To create new file with orig .ext

_ParseRoot($URL) & _ParseName($URL) & _ParseExt($URL) = strip stubs to get home page.

Ignore the `s. There is no Tab or Table func in this editor !

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If Input= "C:\root\sub.c\name.qual.ext"

Result=``````My Current`````` Option```````SplitPath

````````````````````````````````````````$Drive $Dir

_ParseRoot```C:\root\sub.c\``C:\root\sub.c\`````C:````\root\sub.c\

_ParseName``name.qual`````name````````````name.qual

_ParseExt ````.ext `````````.qual.ext`````````.ext

_ParseStub ```nul `````````` nul

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If Input= "http(s)://www.site.qual/stub/stub:/etc"

Result=`````My Current`````Option``````SplitPath

`````````````````````````````````````$Drive $Dir

_ParseRoot``http(s)://www.``http(s)://``````nul```http://

_ParseName```site`````````www.site``````www.site.qual/stub/stub:/

_ParseExt`````.qual`````````.qual````````etc

_ParseStub``/stub/stub:/etc``/stub/stub:/etc

------------------------------------------------------------------

If Input= "www.site.qual/stub/stub:/etc"

Result=``````My Current`````Option````````SplitPath

````````````````````````````````````````$Drive $Dir

_ParseRoot````www.`````````nul```````````nul`````http://

_ParseName```site``````````www.site```````www.site.qual/stub/stub:/

_ParseExt`````.qual`````````.qual``````````etc

_ParseStub```/stub/stub:/etc``/stub/stub:/etc

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Edited July 19, 2004 by jhbell

[Valik]

The functions I wrote are an emulation of the C-library functions with the only differences being mine accept either Unix or Windows slashes (Or mixed) and they support UNC paths (Also, I return the data in some form or another instead of a success/failure return, which I think is what the C versions do, we have @error for that).

Also, it isn't necessary to set up 4 variables.

Local $drive, $dir, $NULL
_SplitPath("D:\The\Path\To\Split.exe", $drive, $dir, $NULL, $NULL)

Mix and match as you please, or declare a single variable and just use the array return value.

Local $NULL
Local $array = _SplitPath("D:\The\Path\To\Split.exe", $NULL, $NULL, $NULL, $NULL)

[jhbell]

Good info. I learn more every day. I was not trying to critique yours just comparing the delimiter approach. In fact if a script needs a lot of this info yours would be faster to execute and easier to use.

But even with this I think it has to be set up and from what I can see in your code it can't just be used as an inline function for a single value since you populate the return array with all four elements. Am I right?

In fact when I look at it, I wonder why you bothered with all the byref variables at all. In fact I stripped them all out of yours and just called $file = _PathSplit (Filnametobesplit) then used $file[n] to get the piece(s) I wanted. But its still not an inline function.

So do mine have value in YHO and are they worth pursuing as included UDF's?

Thanks

[Valik]

Again, mine were emulations of the C-library functions. The C-library takes those parameters and sets them in the same manner. 2 of the 3 C versions return void and the other (fullpath) returns the aboslute path. My return values were more an after-thought than anything else (Except for _FullPath, of course, which, like fullpath, should return something).

The URL part of your functions could be useful. I don't know that I would ever need it, but I'm sure others might. I'm sure others would prefer your approach for Windows/Unix paths (You do support Unix, right? And what about UNC shares?). I, however, would just wrap _SplitPath() if I wanted a quick one-line usable function for conditional comarison.

[jhbell]

Appreciate your feedback..helping me learn...

1) No I made no effort to address UNIX paths or UNC Shares.. My focus is on the local environment and I assumed you would use different functions targeted at any other remote environment.

I think if one had to address UNIX then we would not be able to use it on URL's since it is the / vs \ that signals the difference.

2) I'm still not clear on if you can use your _splitPath as an in-line function.. what do you mean when you say "I, however, would just wrap _SplitPath() if I wanted a quick one-line usable function for conditional comarison" Would you explain what you mean by "wrap" and give me an example? Tks.

[Valik]

The wrapper:

Func GetDrive($path)
    Local $drive, $NULL
     _SplitPath($path, $drive, $NULL, $NULL, $NULL)
    Return $drive
EndFunc

And called as:

If GetDrive("C:\Path\To\Somewhere") <> "C:" Then MsgBox(4096, "Error", "Error")

Edit: Fixed typo.

Edited July 18, 2004 by Valik

[jhbell]

Guess that means you would write my SplitRoot on the fly. I think thats clever and appropriate for an adept programmer but for casual types like me I'll stick with my predefined easy to use function. Also I will stick with my current delimiter definitions in the original post when I submit these functions.

Edited July 19, 2004 by jhbell