Reading first word per line in *.txt file.

Hello,

I have a text file it contains name, addresses, phone number, etc. like such

Welterson Steve 213 N. Sureburn 555-5555 Misc Notes\Info
Sanderson Joel 782 S. Unsureburn 555-5333 Misc Notes\Info


etc.

I just want to get the first word, the surname, and put it in it's own text file.

Can it be done? Thanks alot.

When ever I use text files for database data I usually write the information to the file using a carriage return between data type. e.g
tempstring = name + chr(13) + address + chr(13) + phone etc
to show:
Name
address
phone
Name (here it begins the next record)
address
phone
etc.
this way to read from the file it is very simple so that you read one line at a time. why not change your file to taht and then just simply use "line input".

If a space follows the last name then use.
LastName=Left$(text,InStr$(text," ")-1)

Wayne

Yes it does have a space, Thanks. I'll try that out.

okay, I know i'm doing something really stupid, because It's not working

Code:

---

Private Sub Command1_Click()

Dim LastName As String
Open "C:\Information.txt" For Input As #1
Open "C:\lastnames.txt" For Append As #2
While Not EOF(1)
Line Input #1, temp$
LastName = Left$(temp$, InStr(temp$, " ") - 1)
Print #2, LastName
Wend
Close #1
End Sub

---

It says LastName is an invalid procedure call or argument. But I can see that the LastName string has a name in it!! and the file I'm Printing to has data? But I still get error?


UPDATE: okay that does work but it found some lines that only had a lastname with no other info so it errored. I suppose I can just remove those lines or add an On Error Resume Next?

Code:

---

LastName = Left$(temp, InStr(temp, " ") - 1)

---

don't use '$'..

Don't use "On Error Resume Next". It could cause more problems.
Break up the line like this:

Code:

---

    Dim x as Integer, Text as String
    x=InStr(Text, " ")
    If x=0 Then
        Print #2, Text
    Else
        Print #2, Left$(Text,x-1)
    End If

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