hasn\u2019t<\/I> forgotten how to write a script that can add a <br> tag to the end of every line in a file:<\/P>Const ForReading = 1\nConst ForWriting = 2<\/p>\nSet objFSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)\nSet objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(“C:\\Scripts\\Test.txt”, ForReading)<\/p>\n
strContents = objFile.ReadAll\nobjFile.Close\nstrContents = Replace(strContents, vbCrlf, “<br>” & vbCrLf)<\/p>\n
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(“C:\\Scripts\\Test.txt”, ForWriting)<\/p>\n
objFile.Write strContents\nobjFile.Close\n<\/PRE>\n
Let\u2019s see if we can figure out how this script works. As you can see, we start out by defining a pair of constants, ForReading and ForWriting; we\u2019ll use these constants to tell the script whether we want to open our file and read from it (the ForReading constant) or whether we want to open our file and write to it (the ForWriting constant). And, yes, we need both of these constants because we\u2019re going to have to open the file twice: once to read the existing contents, and a second time to write out the modified contents (that is, the file with the <br> tag at the end of each line).<\/P>\n
After defining the constants we next create an instance of the Scripting.FileSystemObject<\/B> object, then use the following line of code to open the file C:\\Scripts\\Test.txt for reading:<\/P>Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(“C:\\Scripts\\Test.txt”, ForReading)\n<\/PRE>\nNext we call the ReadAll<\/B> method to read in the entire contents of the file, storing that information in a variable named strContents. We then call the Close<\/B> method and close the file. But don\u2019t despair; we\u2019ll be reopening the file, this time for writing, in a minute or two.<\/P>\n
So why did<\/I> we read in the entire contents of the file and then store that information in a variable? That\u2019s easy: we did that because the FileSystemObject doesn\u2019t allow us to directly modify the contents of a file. Instead, we need to read the contents into memory, modify the \u201cvirtual\u201d version of that file, and then overwrite the existing file with these modified contents. We\u2019ve already done part 1 of this 3-part process: we\u2019ve read the contents into memory. Now it\u2019s time for part 2, modifying the virtual version of our file:<\/P>strContents = Replace(strContents, vbCrlf, “<br>” & vbCrLf)\n<\/PRE>\nOur original file, C:\\Scripts\\Test.txt, is just a regular old text file: nothing but a bunch of lines of text. How do you delineate a line in a text file? You know the answer to that one: you just keep typing along until you want to start a new line; at that point, you simply press the ENTER key on the keyboard. In turn, that causes a carriage return-linefeed character to be added to the end of each line. (You won\u2019t see that character if you view the file in Notepad, but trust us, it\u2019s there.)<\/P>\n
The important thing is this: we can determine the end of each line simply by looking for instances of the carriage return-linefeed character (represented by the VBScript constant vbCrLf<\/B>). That also makes it very easy to add the <br> tag to the end of each line; to do that all we need to do is replace each carriage return-linefeed character with the <br> tag plus<\/I> a carriage return-linefeed character. Suppose our text file looks like this, with the asterisk representing the carriage return-linefeed character:<\/P>This is line 1.* \nThis is line 2.* \nThis is line 3.*\n<\/PRE>\nIf we replace each carriage return-linefeed (in this example, each asterisk) with the <br> tag and a carriage return-linefeed character our text file will end up looking like this:<\/P>
This is line 1.<br>* \nThis is line 2.<br>* \nThis is line 3.<br>*\n<\/PRE>\nWhich is good; that\u2019s what we want<\/I> it to look like.<\/P>\n
To make a long story short, that\u2019s what we use the Replace<\/B> function for: we search the value of strContents for each instance of vbCrLf, replacing those instances with the <br> tag plus vbCrLf. Just like the line of code suggests:<\/P>strContents = Replace(strContents, vbCrlf, “<br>” & vbCrLf)\n<\/PRE>\nThat was easier than you thought it was going to be, wasn\u2019t it?<\/P>\n
The next part, part 3, is even easier: we reopen the file C:\\Scripts\\Test.txt, this time for writing, then call the Write<\/B> method to write the revised value of strContents to the file:<\/P>objFile.Write strContents\n<\/PRE>\nAt that point we call the Close<\/B> method to close the file and call it a day. The net result? Each line in the text file now has the <br> tag at the end (again, using an asterisk to represent the invisible carriage return-linefeed character):<\/P>This is line 1.<br>*\nThis is line 2.<br>*\nThis is line 3.<br>*\n<\/PRE>\nThat should do it, MM. Now, if you wouldn\u2019t mind, could you do us a favor in return: could you check your spam mail every now and then and see if anyone is selling generic-quality natural performance enhancers for work<\/I> performance problems? Based on his last performance review that\u2019s something the Scripting Guy who writes this column could really<\/I> use.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a bunch of documents I\u2019m trying to transfer to MySpace. In order to do so, I need to put the <br> tag at the end of each and every line in the document. Is there any way to do that using Microsoft Word, or even Notepad?— MM Hey, MM. You […]<\/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":[3,4,14,5],"class_list":["post-64423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-text-files","tag-vbscript"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"
Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a bunch of documents I\u2019m trying to transfer to MySpace. In order to do so, I need to put the <br> tag at the end of each and every line in the document. Is there any way to do that using Microsoft Word, or even Notepad?— MM Hey, MM. You […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64423","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=64423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64423\/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=64423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/q-for-powertip.jpg\" "\\"Hey,")
\n![\"Spacer\"](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/spacer.gif\")
![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/a-for-powertip.jpg\" "\\"Hey,")
![\"Script](\"http:\/\/img.microsoft.com\/library\/media\/1033\/technet\/images\/scriptcenter\/ad.jpg\" "\\"Script")
<\/A> \n