Subtitute for Select/Case on a UDT

I've defined several UDTs, but need a way to detect the data type, when an instance is passed to a lower level function.
I could just add a string type field to each UDT, but I was hoping for a less kludgy way to do this in VB.

fso declaration and file opening/writing/closing code omitted for brevity.

The reason I need to detect each UDT type separately, is because when writing these vars to a file, they require some special formatting, for syntax reasons in the target application.


Private Type dblParam
Val As Double
name As String
desc As String
End Type

sub myFunc(fso as object)

Dim udtDouble as dblParam

udtDouble.val = 1.1
udtDouble.name="Frequency"
udtDouble.desc="clock frequency"

WriteParams(fso, udtDouble)

end sub



sub WriteParams(fso as object, Instance as variant)

Select Case (VarType(Instance))

Case dblParam <-- THIS DOESN'T COMPILE :-)
Call WriteDouble(fso, Instance)

'Case lngParam
Call WriteLong(fso, Instance)

'Case strParam
Call WriteString(fso, Instance)

'Case lstParam
Call WriteList(fso, Instance)

End Select

End sub

Append the variable to a file for VarType(Instance) to see what the type is, or else, just put it in a CASE ELSE after all the other choices.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dglienna

Append the variable to a file for VarType(Instance) to see what the type is, or else, just put it in a CASE ELSE after all the other choices.

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I don't understand. I'm having a compile problem
WOuld you show an example?
thanks

It's not clear to me what you want exactly, since a UDT can have different data types as members. A UDT can be written to a file in one shot, which is obviously preferable if you can use the resulting format. However, a specific format would require dealing with each member of the UDT seporately. Is that what you are trying to achive?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WizBang

However, a specific format would require dealing with each member of the UDT seporately. Is that what you are trying to achive?

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Yes, this is what I'm after. I also want to use the same function for writing to a file, so once I can detect the dat type, I will add the special formatting for each dat type as a string, then pass the string to a function for writing to the file.

I hope this is close on what your looking for...

I'm assuming that you have files in certain formats (Lets say like Tracker formats.. Mod, S3M, FAR, 669)..

You first need to detect the file type ( Extention or signatures...) then you can build a UDT around the format..

Code:

---

Public Type MOD_Format
    Name as string * 20
    Sample1_Name as string *16
    S1_ Start as Long
    S1_length as Long
    S1_Volume as Byte
    Other as Other_UDT
'.... Etc
End Type

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when ot come to writing the file (or reading for that matter) you can write to the file using the UDT directly..

Code:

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Dim UDT_var as Mod_Format
Open [Filename] for Random as [Filenum] Len = Len(UDT_var)
Put [Filenumber] , [Record_No] , UDT_var

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This obviously will only work if the Different files of the same type always have the same format...

Files of different types but with the same or simuler info can get seperate UDT's built around there uniquness, but using the same names within the UDT...

ie

Code:

---

Public Type S3M_Format
    Filler as string * 10
    Name as string * 30
    No_samples as byte
    Sample1_Name as string *20
    S1_Volume as Byte
    S1_ Start as Long
    S1_length as Long
    Other as Other_UDT
'.... Etc
End Type

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and this way if your converting files from one format to another you can use.. UDT1.Name = UDT2.Name...

If this is helpfull and you need more, let me know....

Gremmy...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GremlinSA

I hope this is close on what your looking for...

I'm assuming that you have files in certain formats (Lets say like Tracker

You first need to detect the file type ( Extention or signatures...)

If this is helpfull and you need more, let me know....

Gremmy...

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>>I'm assuming that you have files in certain formats (Lets say like Tracker
It's not the files that are in certain formats, but the variables written to a plain text file, needs to be of a certain syntax, so it can be parsed by the target application. This is why I need to format doubles, differently from longs, strings, etc.

>>You first need to detect the file type ( Extention or signatures...)
I can't do this-0 as posted in the original email.

Select/case doesn't work on UDT's, and I don't know how else to detect an instance of a UDT.

This is the fundamental problem I cannot figure out.

As far as I'm aware, there's no way to achive exactly what you want. You will have to write a function to specifically work with the UDT members one at a time. Select Case could be used to determine the type of UDT, then the data would be assembled into the desired format. The same file access code could then write the data.

Alternatively, use the same UDT type for all the different kinds of data you have. Make all the members strings if needed, or just have the different variable types defined, though not always used. Then if you need to format each type differently, use one member to determine the formatting, so that the Select Case function can work accordingly. Since the member names and types will already be known, this could cut down on coding depending on the data you are dealing with.

One way which might sorta work (though quite a bit of work and code) would be to go through the pointers. I think it may be possible, but really it's more work than it's worth.

Okay... Lets try another track.... Enum...

Code:

---

Public Enum Var_type_Enum
    TDouble
    TLong
    TInteger
  etc...
end enum

----- in your sub
    WriteParams(fso, udtDouble, TDouble)

-- Or --

    WriteParams(fso, udtLong, TLong)

end sub

sub WriteParams(fso as object, Instance as variant, varType as Var_type_Enum)

Select Case Var_type_Enum

Case TDouble
Call WriteDouble(fso, Instance)

'Case TLong

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This i think is a little less Kludgy than adding a string type to the UDT's....

Basicaly if your passing a UDT over you already know which one it is, so you can pass the type as a Enum...

I hope this is better...

I'm assuming that the reason you need to find out what UDT you were passed is because they are different sizes. Can you build your select structure around the length of the passed item in bytes? IE:

Code:

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Sub WriteParams(fso As Object, Instance As Variant)

    Select Case LenB(Instance)
        Case 16 'dblParam
            Call WriteDouble(fso, Instance)
        Case 18 'lngParam
            Call WriteLong(fso, Instance)
        Case 20 'strParam
            Call WriteString(fso, Instance)
        Case 24 'lstParam
            Call WriteList(fso, Instance)
    End Select

End Sub

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Obviously, you'd have to change the values in the example ('cept the first one), I just stuck them in to illustrate.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GremlinSA

Okay... Lets try another track.... Enum...

[code]Public Enum Var_type_Enum
TDouble
TLong
TInteger
etc...
end enum

I hope this is better...

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Thanks- but, I need string fields in the UDT, because the special formatting for each data type will be generated as a string, then passed to one function (which is common to all data types) to write the formatted string to a file.