ReDim Preserve<\/b> command to redimension our array to the value of the counter variable i:<\/p>\nReDim Preserve arrLines(i)\n<\/pre>\nThe first time through the loop i is equal to 0; that means we\u2019re creating an array of size 0. That, of course, means that we\u2019re creating an array capable of containing 1 item. Arrays always hold 1 more item than their size. Which, in addition to our arrogance, is yet another reason Vulcans find humans so perplexing.<\/p>\n
After we redimension our array our next step is to use the ReadLine<\/b> method to read the first line in the text file, storing that information in a variable named strLine:<\/p>\nstrLine = objFile.ReadLine\n<\/pre>\nOf course, as we noted earlier, we\u2019d prefer that this line be stored as an array; in other words, we\u2019d like to chop the value into its constituent pieces and then store those pieces as separate items. That\u2019s what this block of code is for:<\/p>\n
strItem1 = Trim(Mid(strLine, 1, 8))\nstrItem2 = Trim(Mid(strLine, 9, 16))\nstrItem3 = Trim(Mid(strLine, 25, 16))\nstrItem4 = Trim(Mid(strLine, 41, 15))\nstrItem5 = Trim(Mid(strLine, 57, 21))\n<\/pre>\nWhat\u2019s going on here? Well, PA has a fixed-width text file; that is, the separate fields in his text file take up a specified amount of space. For example, take a look at the beginning of line 1:<\/p>\n
\n<\/thead>\n\n\n| \n 1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 10<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 11<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 12<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 13<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 14<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 15<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 16<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| \n 1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n .<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n .<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n .<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/div>\n As you can see, the first field (the line number) starts in character position 1; the second field (the IP address) doesn\u2019t start until character position 9. That means that the first field starts at character position 1 and continues through character position 8, even though some (in this case, most) of those character spots end up as blank spaces. The command Mid(strLine, 1, 8)<\/b> simply tells the script to take the value of strLine, start with character 1, and grab the next 8 characters. That\u2019s going to make strItem1 equal to this, with the dashes representing blank spaces:<\/p>\n1.------\n<\/pre>\nNeedless to say, we don\u2019t really need the blank spaces on the end of this value. Therefore, we also use the Trim<\/b> function to delete any blank spaces from the beginning and end of the string. That makes the final value of strLine equal to this:<\/p>\n1.\n<\/pre>\nSee how that works? We then repeat the process 4 times, methodically grabbing the values for each field in the text file. It\u2019s a little confusing, but it works.<\/p>\n So what do we do with these field values once we\u2019ve gotten hold of them? This:<\/p>\n arrLines(i) = Array(strItem1, strItem2, strItem3, strItem4, strItem5)\n<\/pre>\nAs you can see, there\u2019s nothing fancy here. We\u2019re simply assigning an array to item i in the \u201cmaster\u201d array arrLines. That means that the first item in arrLines will be another array. And that\u2019s fine; if you want to store an array inside an array, well, who is VBScript to question that? After all, he that walks with logic shall be logical.<\/p>\n \n<\/thead>\n\n\n| \n Note<\/b>. Based on the recent weather, if he walks in Seattle he\u2019ll also be soaked unless he walks both with logic and<\/i> an umbrella.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n From there we increment the value of i by 1, then return to the top of the loop and repeat the process with the next line in the text file. When we\u2019re all done, the first item in the array arrLines will be another array, an array containing these elements:<\/p>\n \n\n\n| \u2022<\/td>\n | \n 1. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \u2022<\/td>\n | \n 192.168.10.101 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \u2022<\/td>\n | \n 00188B22BE77 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \u2022<\/td>\n | \n SAO002331 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \u2022<\/td>\n | \n Ken Myer<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n The second item in the array arrLines will be yet another array, this one containing these<\/i> elements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n| \u2022<\/td>\n | \n 2. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \u2022<\/td>\n | \n 192.168.10.104 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \u2022<\/td>\n | \n 0019D2C841D7 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \u2022<\/td>\n | \n SAO002339 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \u2022<\/td>\n | \n Ken Myer (Laptop)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Etc., etc.<\/p>\n After closing the text file we then \u2013 per PA\u2019s needs \u2013 prompt the user to enter a line number:<\/p>\n intLine = InputBox(\"Please enter a line number:\")\n<\/pre>\nAs soon as we get the line number we immediately subtract 1 from it:<\/p>\n intLine = intLine - 1\n<\/pre>\nWhat\u2019s the point of that? Well, we assume that the user is going to enter one of the actual line numbers shown in the text file (e.g., line 3). That\u2019s fine, except for one thing: because the first item in an array is item 0 that means that line 3 will actually be array item 2<\/i>. If the user wants to work with line 3 that means they want to work with item 2 in the array. Hence we need to subtract 1 from the line number.<\/p>\n If that hurts your brain, well, join the crowd. But that\u2019s just the way arrays work.<\/p>\n That brings us to our final block of code:<\/p>\n arrInfo = arrLines(intLine)\nWscript.Echo \"IP address: \" & arrInfo(1)\nWscript.Echo \"MAC address: \" & arrInfo(2)\n<\/pre>\nAll we\u2019re doing here is grabbing the requested item from the array arrLines and assigning it to yet another<\/i> array. <\/p>\n\n<\/thead>\n\n\n| \n Note<\/b>. Is this a world record for the most arrays ever used in a single script? We hope not. At the moment the Scripting Guys hold the world\u2019s record for fewest world records held. If we accidentally set a new world\u2019s record then we\u2019ll lose the only world\u2019s record we actually hold.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n After assigning a value to arrInfo we can then \u2013 again, per PA\u2019s needs \u2013 report back the IP address (item 1 in the array arrInfo) and the MAC address (item 2 in the array arrInfo). If the user really did request the information for line 3 then the output should look like this:<\/p>\n IP address: 192.168.10.113\nMAC address: 00121B44CW77\n<\/pre>\nAnd there you have it, PA; live long and prosper. Or, as Surak himself would say, “Once you have thrown away your pach-te, you have found the true center, the golden river, the lifeblood of the world.”<\/p>\n So true, so very, very true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to read in data from a text file and store each line as a separate item in an array. However, the data in each line must also be stored as an array; in other words, I need an array made up of other arrays. I tried creating a multidimensional array, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,3,4,5],"class_list":["post-55753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-arrays-hash-tables-and-dictionary-objects","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-vbscript"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":" Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to read in data from a text file and store each line as a separate item in an array. However, the data in each line must also be stored as an array; in other words, I need an array made up of other arrays. I tried creating a multidimensional array, […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} | | | | |
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