recognize first three characters in a line?

dear all,

i have a sticky problem. i have some files where, among others, an unknown number of lines starts with "Jxyz" followed with a line starting with "end"; the Jxyz lines are all followed and contain text numbers and commas, randoomly ordered.

I need to perform a certain action on the Jxyz lines and stop the "cycle" when the "end" line is reached.

There are other lines before and after this block of lines, so EOF if not an option.

My problem is: how to "recognize" the "end" line so that I can stop the cycle and go on with the program?

Any help would be marvellous.

Cheers,

GJ

So is this a text file, a database, etc... you need to be a little more specific there.

Also how are you reading this file??

You can always use

Code:

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if left$(howeveryourdoingthis, 4) = "Jxyz" then
      Do what you need to
end if

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I would loop through the code checking for the "end" string, because this is obviouly a defined sign

Code:

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' open your file here
Do
        'here you need to read in the line line by line into 'sLineString'
        LineInput #1, sLineString
        if  left(sLineString,3) = "end" then exit do
loop

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If you tell us what sort of file ( text, doc, xls,database ? )are u using we maybe can help you more. Hope that helps

Or, read it all into a buffer, and work from there. It would be faster.

Code:

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Option Explicit

Private Sub Form_Load()
  Dim x As Integer, st As String
  Dim ff As Integer
  Dim strBuff As String
  Dim str() As String
  ff = FreeFile
  Open App.Path & "\to do.txt" For Input As #ff
    strBuff = Input(LOF(ff), ff)
  Close #ff
  ' ----------------- two ways to skin a cat --------------
  MsgBox "Lines = " & Len(strBuff) - Len(Replace(strBuff, vbCrLf, "x")) + 1
  ' -------------------------------------------------------
  str() = Split(strBuff, vbCrLf)
  MsgBox "There are " & UBound(str) + 1 & " lines in the file"
  For x = 0 To UBound(str)
' check for "END" and if so, then Exit For to get out of the loop
    st = st & str(x) & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
  Next x
  MsgBox st
End Sub

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There are two ways to count number of lines, as you can see.

Actually, I took the idea of JonnyPoet and worked on it and it worked just the way I wanted.

Thanks u all,
GJ

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gjustino

Actually, I took the idea of JonnyPoet and worked on it and it worked just the way I wanted.

Thanks u all,
GJ

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You are welcome. Please dont forget ( if not done in between )to sign this post as resolved ( Use the Threadtools in the upper line, so others didn't spend any more attention in this request :)
If you need further help always feel free to ask.