Ah! the dilemma, and the posibilities...

Before I actually get started, perhaps someone has already done this... it's
actually a no brainer, but like to see if anyone has come up with a
condensed version that's a bit more efficient...

OK...

First a text a file that contains...

****THIS COMMENT OR THAT****

**122 LINE ONE
**123 LINE TWO
**124 LINE THREE

********************************

Considering it may contain spaces and more comments, I'd like to be able to
use vl-position to located number "122" in a list that I'll be creating of a
file reference.

Also, eliminate any spaces, or tabs when returning the reference number
"LINE ITEM NOTE".

<list> = ("****THIS COMMENT OR THAT****" "" "**122 LINE ONE"
.....etc.....)

In the end I'd like to say (get-note "123" <list>) and all it returns is
"LINE TWO" without any spaces or tabs in front of the note...

I'd like to eliminate possibilities that someone may use spaces, tabs or
both when writing the line item note.

I know I could come up with a simple solution, but I'd like to see if
someone may have a more efficient method, instead of having to compare each
character in the LINE considering that the list could contain hundreds or
items listed.

Thank you for your comments

 

What about using vl-string-trim, vl-string-search etc. to suit ...

(vl-string-trim " */t" "***122 LINE ONE")

=> "122 LINE ONE"

(if
(setq pos
(vl-string-search
" "
(setq temp
(vl-string-trim
" */t"
"**122 LINE ONE"
)
)
)
)
(substr temp 1 pos)
)

=> "122"

Etc.

 

Thanks Michael, but I don't think the number reference would be to
difficult, rather the contents after the number, which could include tabs or
spaces, as I illustrated...I just don't want to go through another loop to
get the note contents...

Here's what I have...(masi-get-reference) is stored in drawing, but could be
any file name.

(defun c:test (/ file ofile oline olist)

(setq file (masi-get-reference))

(if (findfile file)
(progn

(setq ofile (open file "r"))
(while (setq oline (read-line ofile))
(setq olist (cons oline olist)
nlist (cons (substr oline 1 5) nlist)
)

);end of while
(close ofile)
)
)

(list (reverse nlist)(reverse olist))
)

 

Just so you know I could now use the vl-position to return the remaining
values, but would like to see if it could be condensed a bit more to strip
any spaces and or tabs.

The illustrated function returns 2 list, one that contains the first 5
charcters, and the second listing that returns anything remaining on that
line...

 

One call in the beginning, it wouldn't be efficient to call the file several
times.

I gather the listing first then actually compare to a list of possible
numbers.

Although I only mention one number, it could be a list of random numbers.

(list 122 123)
read file
return line for each number

 

Can you store the text file in list format ie.
((1 . 1)(2 . "Solid Surface")(10 . "SS1")(20 . "Fossil")(30 . "Corian")(40 .
"1")(50 . "Tops and splash"))

((1 . 2)(2 . "Solid Surface")(10 . "SS2")(20 . "Pompeii Red")(30 .
"Corian")(40 . "1")(50 . "Lavatories"))

((1 . 3)(2 . "Solid Surface")(10 . "SS4")(20 . "Anthracite")(30 .
"Corian")(40 . "1")(50 . "Base"))

then search it like the acad database?

 

One possibility?

R2005:

(setq test '("****THIS COMMENT OR THAT****" " " "**122 LINE ONE" " " "" "**133 LINE FIVE" "" "" "**142 LINE SIX"))

Just to make the list longer:

(repeat 10 (setq test (append test test)))

(length test) = 9216

(defun get-note (itm) ;integer input
(setq itm (itoa itm)
searchitem (strcat "*" itm "*"))
(car (apply 'append (mapcar '(lambda (x)(if (wcmatch x searchitem)(list (vl-position x test)))) test)))
)
2

Command: timer
Elapsed time: 0.015000 seconds



Bill

 

The file is external...