Finding strings in multiple files

[Chrispy360]

Hi,
Can some one please show me, if possible, how to read several files, looking for a certain number,
for example, you might have:
text1.txt
text2.txt
text3.txt
one of these will contain a number, in this example 5, is there a way of finding out wish one of the files contains 5.
Thanks, any questions please ask

[javajawa]

If you look at some of the threads from today, you'll find most of your answer. All you have to do is look at more than one file, but that's simple enough.

Here are some relevant threads, all from today:
http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=457987
http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=457784
http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=457952

[WizBang]

Seems to me, that you could store the file names in a string array, loop through them, and within that loop, you'd open each, search for the text, and close the file. Searching could be one line at a time, or all at once. If the string being searched for is found, exit the loop.

[Chrispy360]

Could you please give me an example code, because i know how to read a .txt file but new to arrays.
thanks

[DataMiser]

You do not even need an array, just read each line using somethign like line input or read the entire file into a variable then use instr() to search for the number a result > 0 means it has been found.

[VehementSoftware]

Something Like this?

Public Function SearchFiles(ByVal SearchString as String, ParamArray _
FilePaths() as Variant) as Variant

  Dim strFilePathsWithString() as String
  Dim intCounter as Integer

  'initialize counter
  intCounter = 0
  'loop through passed files
  For i = 0 to Ubound(FilePaths)
    Dim strFileContents as string 'To recieve contents of file
    Dim intFileNum as Integer 'Used to reference Open file.

    'set file number
    intFileNum = FreeFile(0)
    'Open file at index i
    Open FilePaths(i) for Input as intFileNum
    'Loop through creating your full file string
    Do Until EOF(intFileNum)
      Dim strLineRead as string 'Used to read a line
      'get line from file
      Line Input #intFileNum, strLineRead
      'Add the Line to your combined file contents.
      strFileContents = strFileContents & strLineRead
    Loop
    'Close the file
    Close intFileNum
    'Test to see if search string is in contents of file
    if Instr(strFileContents, SearchString) > 0 then
      'redimension strFilePathsWithString to counter + 1
      Redim Preserve FilePathsWithString(intCounter + 1)
      'add the file path for the file that has it to the string to the 
      'strFilePathsWithString array
      strFilePathsWithString(counter) = cstr(FilePaths(i))
      'increment the counter
      intCounter = intCounter + 1
    End If
  Next

  'set function equal to created array of files with the searched for string
  SearchFiles = strFilePathsWithString
End Function

There may be some errors in that; I have a hard time coding with out my color coded text editor, but this I think would be a good structure. In addition, there may be a more efficient way to do this; I am still kind of a noob myself, so one of the people with more experience may be able to clean it up.

[DataMiser]

Actually if you are going to do a line by line read then the best thing to do is check each line for the search phrase and if it is found exit the loop and close the file. No need to save all the lines and then do the search unless you want to locate all the instances in the file.

open filename for input as #filehandle
do while not eof(filehandle)
  line input #filehandle, LineFromFile
  if Instr(LineFromFile,SearchPhrase) then
     FoundIt=True
     exit do
  end if
loop
close #filehandle

If foundit is false then move on to the next file and do the same process ideally using an outter loop with something like above nested within.

[dglienna]

then, in six months, they ask you to count how many number X in each file?

back to square one?

[VehementSoftware]

I like the line by line check with a break as well.

[WizBang]

That's basically it VehementSoftware, though it isn't necessary to use Variants. It is always a good idea to avoid Variants whenever possible, as they are less efficient. In this case, a string array would work well.

[DataMiser]

then, in six months, they ask you to count how many number X in each file?

back to square one?

No biggie just a couple of minor tweaks. change the one line from foundit=true to foundit=foundit+1 and comment out the exit do and now you have a counter for how many lines it occurs in. If it could occur more than once in a line then another simple little loop around the instr and foundit lines that will check for all instances within the line.

However if the intention was to find all instances of it within each specific file then I would not use a line by line read as this would not be very efficent and could be slow on a large file. Instead I would read the entire file into memory in one shot and search the content.

[Chrispy360]

Actually if you are going to do a line by line read then the best thing to do is check each line for the search phrase and if it is found exit the loop and close the file. No need to save all the lines and then do the search unless you want to locate all the instances in the file.

open filename for input as #filehandle
do while not eof(filehandle)
  line input #filehandle, LineFromFile
  if Instr(LineFromFile,SearchPhrase) then
     FoundIt=True
     exit do
  end if
loop
close #filehandle

If foundit is false then move on to the next file and do the same process ideally using an outter loop with something like above nested within.

Thank you very much for that, unfortunatly, i basically have a file like the following:
AAAAAA 1.1.1
AAAAAB 1.1.1
AAAAAC 1.1.1
AAAAAA 1.1.2
AAAAAB 1.1.2
AAAAAA 1.1.2

What i wish to do though, is detect the newest times, in this example 1.1.2 and then find out how many different strings there are, for exmaple the newest time in my little example is 1.1.2, then i want it to say there were two different strings, AAAAAA,AAAAAB, but not detect the second AAAAAA, resulting in a textbox on the .exe = 2. Is this possible.
Thanks

[javajawa]

Here's my very hastily thrown together solution - If you want anything explained, just asked. It only works for one file, but doubtless you can use the earlier advice to adapt it. It also will only work with the prototpye as you gave it in your last post. It isn't a very good solution over all (feel free to laugh at my attempt at error checking) but It should get the job done!

I copied your sample data into a text file, then tried this with:

Debug.Print Join(Form1.GetLinesAtLastTime("C:\text.txt"), vbNewLine)

As the debug window doesn't like arrays. It returned the correct data.


So, here we go!

Option Explicit

Private Type mTime
    p1 As Integer
    p2 As Integer
    p3 As Integer
End Type

Private Function mTimeSame(ByRef mTime1 As mTime, ByRef mTime2 As mTime) As Boolean
    mTimeSame = ((mTime1.p1 = mTime2.p1) And (mTime1.p2 = mTime2.p2) And (mTime1.p3 = mTime2.p3))
End Function

Private Function mTimeOneIsBigger(ByRef mTime1 As mTime, ByRef mTime2 As mTime) As Boolean
    If mTime1.p1 > mTime2.p1 Then
        mTimeOneIsBigger = True
    ElseIf mTime1.p1 < mTime2.p1 Then
        mTimeOneIsBigger = False
    Else
        If mTime1.p2 > mTime2.p2 Then
            mTimeOneIsBigger = True
        ElseIf mTime2.p2 < mTime2.p2 Then
            mTimeOneIsBigger = False
        Else
            If mTime1.p3 > mTime2.p3 Then
                mTimeOneIsBigger = True
            ElseIf mTime1.p3 < mTime2.p1 Then
                mTimeOneIsBigger = False
            Else
                mTimeOneIsBigger = False
            End If
        End If
    End If
End Function

Public Function GetLinesAtLastTime(ByVal FileName As String) As String()
    Dim mFile As Integer, Line As String
    Dim Time As mTime, NewTime As mTime
    Dim Parts() As String, Data As String
    
    'Prototype: AAAAAA 1.1.1
    
    mFile = freeFile
    Open FileName For Input As #mFile
    
    Do While Not EOF(mFile)
        Line Input #mFile, Line
        Parts() = Split(Line, " ")
        If UBound(Parts) = 1 Then
            Parts() = Split(Parts(1), ".")
            If UBound(Parts) = 2 Then
                NewTime.p1 = Parts(0)
                NewTime.p2 = Parts(1)
                NewTime.p3 = Parts(2)
            Else
                Err.Raise 1342, "Some Code", "ASGEGWRH!"
        Else
            Err.Raise 1342, "Some Code", "ASGEGWRH!"
        End If
        
        Parts = Split(Line, " ")
        
        If mTimeSame(Time, NewTime) Then
            Data = Data & ";" & Parts(0)
        ElseIf mTimeOneIsBigger(NewTime, Time) Then
            Time = NewTime
            Data = Parts(0)
        End If
        
    Loop
    
    Close #mFile

    GetLinesAtLastTime = Split(Data, ";")
End Function

Hope that's of some help!

[Chrispy360]

There is a problem with the line
'Private Function mTimeSame(ByRef mTime1 As mTime, ByRef mTime2 As mTime) As Boolean'
it comes up with the error 'User-Defined type not defined' could you explain why?
thanks

[javajawa]

Have you got that function in the same form / module at the definition of mTime? If you dump all of that code into one module, it should work.

The reason for the error is that the compiler couldn't find one of the types in the line. I won't be boolean as that is a core value which you couldn't program without if you tried, so it means it can't find the type mTime. The likely reason, as I sort of mentioned, is that if it's in a different form or module and declared as private (as it was in my code ("Private Type mTime"), then it can't be used outside that Form / Module.
In fact, you can't have Types, Enums (enumerators), Declares and (if memory serves) constants as Public members of a form. That's why you'll find many projects have module full of only them.