Notes tests, string, manipulation of text files and string manipulations

**DocAElstein** · 08-18-2021, 03:29 PM

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**DocAElstein** · 08-18-2021, 03:29 PM

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**DocAElstein** · 02-08-2022, 09:32 PM

Insert some lines without losing what’s there / Retain Comments / Shift what’s there to the right

A fairly simple problem
A common requirement for me is that I want to put some raw code lines into an existing script or VBA code, but I don’t want to change the line numbers referring to where they do in the existing code file.
This might occur if I want to replace some coding, but would like to keep the existing coding for future reference, possibly commented out to the right
What I might do typically for just a few lines is to manually put a comment at the start left of lines to be replaced, and then shift those now comments a few spaces to the right, then start typing the replacement lines from the left, which then pushed those comments to the left
Pictorially this is what I mean for the simple case of wanting to replace just one line

Code:

Sub Original()
Dim Msg As String
 Let Msg = "Hello"
 MsgBox Prompt:="Hello shit World"
End Sub
Sub ModifiedByInsertingNewCodeLine()
Dim Msg As String
 Let Msg = "Hello"
 Debug.Print "Hello shit World" ' MsgBox Prompt:="Hello shit World"
End Sub

That’s easy for a few lines, but for a lot of lines it’s a tedious pain in the arse

.ps1 PowerShell text like code lines
Currently have some large .ps1 PowerShell files that I am inserting a lot of lines in and want to do it in the way I am talking about
In this post I will check out the format of the files first, in case there are any unusual “invisible” characters in them, since I have seen that in some PowerShell related text files ( https://excelfox.com/forum/showthrea...ll=1#post15357 https://excelfox.com/forum/showthrea...age3#post15357 )
Here is a File of 250 code line, that I want to put in,
Share ‘blockIPhostsRawAll250.ps1’ https://app.box.com/s/7019x59uvvxt7osvb0tojr0z4g7bfdgk ,
and here is just the first 4 lines for testing here,
Share ‘blockIPhosts4Lines.ps1’ https://app.box.com/s/37pjl9jfk9wue413xewgcjg1cdwk9dwb .
Here is a File I want to put that in from about line 200,
Share ‘Temp7BeforeIPhostsInsert.ps1’ https://app.box.com/s/fttlmwny6y4s5ub1q66kvqbrw2ppxdwz
, and here is just the first 4 lines of that for testing here,
Share ‘Temp7BeforeIPhostsInsertFirst4Lines.ps1’ https://app.box.com/s/bimxv550fpkoqndt8rz421s9vmcsorif .

Simple macro …_

Code:

'Here is a File of 250 code line, that I want to put in,
'Share ‘blockIPhostsRawAll250.ps1’ https://app.box.com/s/7019x59uvvxt7osvb0tojr0z4g7bfdgk ,
'and here is just the first 4 lines for testing here,
'Share ‘blockIPhosts4Lines.ps1’ https://app.box.com/s/37pjl9jfk9wue413xewgcjg1cdwk9dwb .
'Here is a File I want to put that in from about line 200,
'Share ‘Temp7BeforeIPhostsInsert.ps1’ https://app.box.com/s/fttlmwny6y4s5ub1q66kvqbrw2ppxdwz
', and here is just the first 4 lines of that for testing here,
'Share ‘Temp7BeforeIPhostsInsertFirst4Lines.ps1’ https://app.box.com/s/bimxv550fpkoqndt8rz421s9vmcsorif .
'
'
Sub LookInFirstBitOfTemp4andIPhosts() ' https://excelfox.com/forum/showthread.php/2559-Notes-tests-text-files-manipulation-of-text-files-in-Excel-and-with-Excel-VBA?p=16366&viewfull=1#post16366
' Get the text file as a long single string
Dim FileNum As Long: Let FileNum = FreeFile(1) ' https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vba/language-reference-vba/articles/freefile-function
Dim PathAndFileName As String, TotalFile As String
 Let PathAndFileName = ThisWorkbook.Path & Application.PathSeparator & "test4lines.txt" ' CHANGE TO SUIT From vixer zyxw1234 : http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=34629 DF.txt https://app.box.com/s/gw941dh9v8sqhvzin3lo9rfc67fjsbic
Open PathAndFileName For Binary As #FileNum 'Open Route to data. Binary is a fundamental type data input...
 Let TotalFile = Space(LOF(FileNum)) '....and wot receives it has to be a string of exactly the right length
Get #FileNum, , TotalFile 'Debug.Print TotalFile
 'Let TotalFile = Replace(TotalFile, Chr(0), "", 1, -1, vbBinaryCompare) ' https://i.postimg.cc/t43HCQr9/Rather-a-lot-of-Chr-0-s.jpg
 'Let TotalFile = Replace(TotalFile, Chr(255) & Chr(254) & vbCr & vbLf, "", 1, 1, vbBinaryCompare)
Close #FileNum
 Call WtchaGot_Unic_NotMuchIfYaChoppedItOff(TotalFile)
End Sub

Here is a view in the text editor of those first 4 lines, followed by what my WtchaGot_Unic_NotMuchIfYaChoppedItOff( function gives me

Code:

 Function BlochIPhosts {param([int]$Testie)
 $Check = $Testie
Write-Host "Adding telemetry domains to hosts file" # Write-Output "Adding telemetry domains to hosts file"
$hosts_file = "$env:systemroot\System32\drivers\etc\hosts"


"Function BlochIPhosts " & Chr(123) & "param" & "(" & Chr(91) & "int" & Chr(93) & "$" & "Testie" & ")" & vbCr & vbLf & " " & "$" & "Check " & "=" & " " & "$" & "Testie" & vbCr & vbLf & "Write" & "-" & "Host " & """" & "Adding telemetry domains to hosts file" & """" & " " & "#" & " Write" & "-" & "Output " & """" & "Adding telemetry domains to hosts file" & """" & vbCr & vbLf & "$" & "hosts" & "_" & "file " & "=" & " " & """" & "$" & "env" & ":" & "systemroot" & "\" & "System32" & "\" & "drivers" & "\" & "etc" & "\" & "hosts" & """"



Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
[System.Windows.Forms.Application]::EnableVisualStyles() #
Remove-Variable * -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue # is needed or else a removed variable is still there when fucking about with variables. by default variables are persistant.
$ErrorActionPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'


"Add" & "-" & "Type " & "-" & "AssemblyName System" & "." & "Windows" & "." & "Forms" & vbLf & Chr(91) & "System" & "." & "Windows" & "." & "Forms" & "." & "Application" & Chr(93) & ":" & ":" & "EnableVisualStyles" & "(" & ")" & " " & "#" & vbLf & "Remove" & "-" & "Variable " & Chr(42) & " " & "-" & "ErrorAction SilentlyContinue " & "#" & " is needed or else a removed variable is still there when fucking about with variables" & "." & " by default variables are persistant" & "." & vbLf & "$" & "ErrorActionPreference " & "=" & " " & "'" & "SilentlyContinue" & "'"

Here is a screenshot of the two files in Notepad text editor

So, no major problems or surprises, ( or so I thought – see next post )
It looks like a different line separator is used sometimes. But we have seen this before.
I have a slight personal tendency to prefer the two character line separator, vbCr & vbLf , and also the first file was the main one in which the other will be inserted, so I will do a simple conversion to the file to be inserted to replace all vbLf with vbCr & vbLf

One small interesting note. I don’t have a last trailing line feed character or characters. That is not so usual, at least I have not experienced it yet so far in playing around with .csv and other text files

**DocAElstein** · 02-08-2022, 09:32 PM

I hit a problem later
I hit a problem later…. The full main file actually looked like this in a text editor:

and it got me an 9 line array, where I was expecting one of 2102

I don’t know how that came about since the four lines file was made and saved in the same ISE environment in which the Main file was and was saved in. But it looks like unfortunately there may be a few, 9 , vbCr & vbLfs.
So, I took a look at a shortened vision of that file, as saved in a text editor, trying to capture some of the problem areas.
This is what I looked at

Here is the results:

Code:

 
"Function BlochIPhosts " & Chr(123) & "param" & "(" & Chr(91) & "int" & Chr(93) & "$" & "Testie" & ")" & vbCr & vbLf & " " & "$" & "Check " & "=" & " " & "$" & "Testie" & vbCr & vbLf & "Write" & "-" & "Host " & """" & "Adding telemetry domains to hosts file" & """" & " " & "#" & " Write" & "-" & "Output " & """" & "Adding telemetry domains to hosts file" & """" & vbCr & vbLf & "$" & "hosts" & "_" & "file " & "=" & " " & """" & "$" & "env" & ":" & "systemroot" & "\" & "System32" & "\" & "drivers" & "\" & "etc" & "\" & "hosts" & """"

"Add" & "-" & "Type " & "-" & "AssemblyName System" & "." & "Windows" & "." & "Forms" & vbLf & Chr(91) & "System" & "." & "Windows" & "." & "Forms" & "." & "Application" & Chr(93) & ":" & ":" & "EnableVisualStyles" & "(" & ")" & " " & "#" & vbLf & "Remove" & "-" & "Variable " & Chr(42) & " " & "-" & "ErrorAction SilentlyContinue " & "#" & " is needed or else a removed variable is still there when fucking about with variables" & "." & " by default variables are persistant" & "." & vbLf & "$" & "ErrorActionPreference " & "=" & " " & "'" & "SilentlyContinue" & "'"

"Add" & "-" & "Type " & "-" & "AssemblyName System" & "." & "Windows" & "." & "Forms " & "#" & " For ps1 in PowerShell running code lines in PowerShell with Admin rights of the following form are what you need to set this off Set" & "-" & "ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted cd " & "'" & "G" & ":" & "\" & "Temp Opt" & "\" & "GitHub" & "\" & "win10script" & "-" & "master" & "\" & "My ps1 file Folder" & "'" & " " & "." & "\" & "win10debloat6Dec" & "-" & "31Dec" & "." & "ps1 " & vbLf & Chr(91) & "System" & "." & "Windows" & "." & "Forms" & "." & "Application" & Chr(93) & ":" & ":" & "EnableVisualStyles" & "(" & ")" & " " & "#" & vbLf & "Remove" & "-" & "Variable " & Chr(42) & " " & "-" & "ErrorAction SilentlyContinue " & "#" & " is needed or else a removed variable is still there when fucking about with variables" & "." & " by default variables are persistant" & "." & vbLf & "$" & "ErrorActionPreference " & "=" & " " & "'" & "SilentlyContinue" & "'" & vbLf
 & "$" & "wshell " & "=" & " New" & "-" & "Object " & "-" & "ComObject Wscript" & "." & "Shell" & vbLf & "$" & "Button " & "=" & " " & Chr(91) & "System" & "." & "Windows" & "." & "MessageBoxButton" & Chr(93) & ":" & ":" & "YesNoCancel" & vbLf & "$" & "ErrorIco " & "=" & " " & Chr(91) & "System" & "." & "Windows" & "." & "MessageBoxImage" & Chr(93) & ":" & ":" & "Error" & vbLf & "If " & "(" & "!" & "(" & Chr(91) & "Security" & "." & "Principal" & "." & "WindowsPrincipal" & Chr(93) & Chr(91) & "Security" & "." & "Principal" & "." & "WindowsIdentity" & Chr(93) & ":" & ":" & "GetCurrent" & "(" & ")" & ")" & "." & "IsInRole" & "(" & Chr(91) & "Security" & "." & "Principal" & "." & "WindowsBuiltInRolpl" & vbLf & Chr(125) & ")" & vbLf & "$" & "oldcontrolpanel" & "." & "Add" & "_" & "Click" & "(" & Chr(123) & vbLf & " cmd " & "/" & "c control" & vbLf & Chr(125) & ")" & vbLf & "$" & "oldsystempanel" & "." & "Add" & "_" & "Click" & "(" & Chr(123) & vbLf & " cmd " & "/" & "c sysdm" & "." & "cpl" & vbLf & Chr(125
) & ")" & vbLf & "#" & " " & "$" & "oldpower" & "." & "Add" & "_" & "Click" & "(" & Chr(123) & vbCr & vbLf & vbCr & vbLf & "#" & " " & Chr(125) & ")" & vbLf & "#" & " " & "$" & "restorepower" & "." & "Add" & "_" & "Click" & "(" & Chr(123) & vbCr & vbLf & vbCr & vbLf & vbCr & vbLf & vbCr & vbLf & vbCr & vbLf & vbCr & vbLf & "#" & " " & Chr(125) & ")" & vbLf & "#" & " " & "$" & "NFS" & "." & "Add" & "_" & "Click" & "(" & Chr(123) & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & "#" & " " & Chr(125) & ")" & vbLf & vbLf & "#" & " " & "$" & "Virtualization" & "." & "Add" & "_" & "Click" & "(" & Chr(123) & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & vbLf & "#" & " " & Chr(125) & ")" & vbLf & vbLf & "$" & "windowsupdatefix" & "." & "Add" & "_" & "Click" & "(" & Chr(123) & vbLf & " Write" & "-" & "Host " & """" & "1" & "." & " Stopping Windows Update Services" & "." & "." & "." & """" & " " & vbLf & " Stop" & "-" & "Service "
 & "-" & "Name BITS " & vbLf & " " & " "

**DocAElstein** · 02-08-2022, 09:32 PM

This is post https://excelfox.com/forum/showthrea...age8#post16491
https://excelfox.com/forum/showthrea...ll=1#post16491
https://excelfox.com/forum/showthread.php/2559-Notes-tests-text-files-manipulation-of-text-files-in-Excel-and-with-Excel-VBA/page8#post16491
https://excelfox.com/forum/showthread.php/2559-Notes-tests-text-files-manipulation-of-text-files-in-Excel-and-with-Excel-VBA?p=16491&viewfull=1#post16491

So I will make a function, just for convenience even though I am not so keen on those things
It will take in
_(i) The two file names , the main one, and then the one to be inserted,
_(ii) the line at which to insert, and optional the number of lines to insert, ( if no number is given, I assume all lines want to be inserted from the second file )
_ an optional name for the output file, ( if none is given I will add something like the date to the name of the original main file, and call it that)

_(iii) Based on the results from the last post, I probably will need to keep my eye on the line feed issue. For now the way to proceed could be to first replace all vbCr & vbLf with vbLf, to get them hopefully all to the same , and then after replace all vbLf with vbCr & vbLf
_ (iv) I assume all files are in the same folder

The techniques used to bring the files into 1 dimensional array of rows are tried and trusted, used many times before. I have the main file in a master array , arrRwsM() , and the file to be merged into it is in the array, arrRws()
At the point of the code development, where these arrays were made, I checked the contents, and there was perfect agreement between the rows in the ps1 files, and the elements of the arrays.

So what is new is to combine, merge, the files as required
A simple loop will do, that tacks on the extra coding from the left in the master code array.
We don’t need to add many spaces, since usually there is already many since the commented lines are over to the right. This is a simple coding bit to do that,
______ arrRwsM(LnNbr - 1) = arrRws(LnNbr - StRw) & arrRwsM(LnNbr - 1)

Code:

    For LnNbr = StRw To Rws + StRw - 1 ' This  - 1  is the usual “getting end row from start row and count of rows” issue - its always     (the start row) + ( Rows count - 1 )
     Let arrRwsM(LnNbr - 1) = arrRws(LnNbr - StRw) & arrRwsM(LnNbr - 1) ' The  - 1  here is because the one dimensional arrays start at 0, so the lines we are intersted in are 1 element back from where we might have expected them
    Next LnNbr

Its extremely easy now to remake the modified text file by joining the modified array elements by a line separator,
____ TotalFile = Join(arrRwsM(), vbCr & vbLf)
( For now I will stay with the vbCr & vbLf , as my personal preference )

Code:

'  https://excelfox.com/forum/showthread.php/2559-Notes-tests-text-files-manipulation-of-text-files-in-Excel-and-with-Excel-VBA/page8#post16491
Sub testieIt() '   https://excelfox.com/forum/showthread.php/2559-Notes-tests-text-files-manipulation-of-text-files-in-Excel-and-with-Excel-VBA?p=16491&viewfull=1#post16491
 Call MergeScriptFiles("Temp7BeforeIPhostsInsert.ps1", "blockIPhostsRawAll250.ps1", 201, , "Temp8.ps1")
End Sub
'  ByVal TxtM As String, ByVal TxtInst As String, ByVal StRw As Long, Optional ByVal Rws As Long, Optional ByVal FlNmeOut As String
Public Function MergeScriptFiles(ByVal TxtM As String, ByVal TxtInst As String, ByVal StRw As Long, Optional ByVal Rws As Long, Optional ByVal FlNmeOut As String)
Rem 1 main file
' Get the text file as a long single string
Dim FileNum As Long: Let FileNum = FreeFile(1)                                    ' https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vba/language-reference-vba/articles/freefile-function
Dim PathAndFileName As String, TotalFile As String
 Let PathAndFileName = ThisWorkbook.Path & Application.PathSeparator & TxtM   '                                                               CHANGE TO SUIT                                                                                                         From vixer zyxw1234  : http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=34629     DF.txt https://app.box.com/s/gw941dh9v8sqhvzin3lo9rfc67fjsbic
Open PathAndFileName For Binary As #FileNum 'Open Route to data. Binary is a fundamental type data input...
 Let TotalFile = Space(LOF(FileNum)) '....and wot receives it has to be a string of exactly the right length
Get #FileNum, , TotalFile
Close #FileNum    'Debug.Print TotalFile
 Let TotalFile = Replace(TotalFile, vbCr & vbLf, vbLf, 1, -1, vbBinaryCompare)
 Let TotalFile = Replace(TotalFile, vbLf, vbCr & vbLf, 1, -1, vbBinaryCompare)
' make a 1 D array of the Main text file
Dim arrRwsM() As String: Let arrRwsM() = Split(TotalFile, vbCr & vbLf, -1, vbBinaryCompare)

Rem 2 file to insert
 Let PathAndFileName = ThisWorkbook.Path & Application.PathSeparator & TxtInst   '                                                               CHANGE TO SUIT                                                                                                         From vixer zyxw1234  : http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=34629     DF.txt https://app.box.com/s/gw941dh9v8sqhvzin3lo9rfc67fjsbic
Open PathAndFileName For Binary As #FileNum 'Open Route to data. Binary is a fundamental type data input...
 Let TotalFile = Space(LOF(FileNum)) '....and wot receives it has to be a string of exactly the right length
Get #FileNum, , TotalFile
Close #FileNum    'Debug.Print TotalFile
 Let TotalFile = Replace(TotalFile, vbCr & vbLf, vbLf, 1, -1, vbBinaryCompare)
 Let TotalFile = Replace(TotalFile, vbLf, vbCr & vbLf, 1, -1, vbBinaryCompare)
' make a 1 D array of the file to insert
Dim arrRws() As String: Let arrRws() = Split(TotalFile, vbCr & vbLf, -1, vbBinaryCompare)

Rem 3 tack on lines from file to merge
    If Rws = 0 Then Let Rws = UBound(arrRws()) + 1 ' This will cause all lines to be merged if no number of lines given
Dim LnNbr As Long
    For LnNbr = StRw To Rws + StRw - 1 ' This  - 1  is the usual getting end row from start row and count of rows issue - its always    the start row + ( Rows count - 1 )
     Let arrRwsM(LnNbr - 1) = arrRws(LnNbr - StRw) & arrRwsM(LnNbr - 1) ' The  - 1  here is because the one dimensional arrays start at 0, so the lines we are intersted in are 1 element back from where we might have expected them
    Next LnNbr  '  LnNbr - StRw   takes us from 0 to 1 less than our maximumn row number - that is exactly the 0 to (1 less than our maximumn row number)
' 3b That seems to have done it, now we just need to remake the merged text file,
' Make text file, alll we need to do is make the single long string including the line breaks that
 Let TotalFile = Join(arrRwsM(), vbCr & vbLf)
Rem 4  Output file
Dim FileNum2 As Long: Let FileNum2 = FreeFile(0)                                  ' https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vba/language-reference-vba/articles/freefile-function
Dim PathAndFileName2 As String
    If FlNmeOut = "" Then Let FlNmeOut = Left(TxtM, InStrRev(TxtM, ".") - 1) & "Merge" & Format(Now(), "dd,mmmyyyy") & ".ps1"
 Let PathAndFileName2 = ThisWorkbook.Path & "\" & FlNmeOut  ' ' CHANGE TO SUIT  ' Will be made if not there
 Open PathAndFileName2 For Output As #FileNum2
 Print #FileNum2, TotalFile ' write out entire text file
 Close #FileNum2
End Function

That above coding has got me my Temp8.ps1 which is Temp7.ps1 with the merged IP hosts block function, along with a few other things done at the end of march, including a first look at a pretty coloured GUI

**DocAElstein** · 02-08-2022, 09:32 PM

In support of this post https://excelfox.com/forum/showthrea...ge53#post12804
A similar requirement to the last post, but for purposes of comparing a change in script by having the two versions side by side
I will do the whole thing again, just to see if I still experience similar effects on a different day.

I am interested in what seems to be a change by Chris Titus to his recent “WPF” windows utility
This change was somehow in between others, ( (ii) inbetween (i) and (iii) ), so may have slipped past most people.
I am taking my data from this red and green stuff , middle in Commit thing,
Mistery Red and Green stuff https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/wi...d6f8ac9bee5a64
or maybe not… This is what I have
The previous XML from god knows where and when, ( the red stuff from that last link )
Share ‘May10-17XML.txt’ https://app.box.com/s/ykynprd9a3ra4w7kcif4h5ziubwktw2t
The “new” green stuff from that last link
Share ‘May17XML.txt’ https://app.box.com/s/gsqjpfmmqwpadmu8wchjrlfrqxwrrg6e

_ (iii) This is now from the next change the next change called up XML thing

The big mystery seems to be for now where and what that red stuff comes from or is.
It seems that the full script from 10 May, the full script from just before the last change (ii) on 17May, and the stand alone XLM in change (iii) all have the same XML stuff

I think I will leave it for now… It’s all a total mess. It looks like he changed something he was never using to update it to what he was using.

….. later