Topic: need some suggestions on converting string to list

[andrew_nao]

now its not working

tried on a new dwg
PLEASE PICK DESIRED TEXT; error: bad argument type: VLA-OBJECT nil

[irneb]

it seems that if i use your search function from the link you gave, i need the rest of the functions also for it to work? it keeps asking for the other functions of your code to use the search function... or am i missing something in the translation?

Yes you are correct, you need an absolute minimum of the RX:Search, RX:Start & RX:Set functions to be loaded in order to use my regular expression library. Fore ease, here's the 3 defuns:

Code - Auto/Visual Lisp: [Select]

1. (vl-load-com)
2.  
3. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. ;;; Get a reference to the Regular Expression Object object
5. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. ;;; Result: a vla object for the regular expression tools
7. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. (defun RX:Start (/)
9.   (if (or (not *RX-Link*)
10.           (not (setq *RX-Link* (vl-bb-ref '*RX-Link*)))
11.           (vlax-object-released-p *RX-Link*)
12.       ) ;_ end of or
13.     (progn
14.       (vl-bb-set '*RX-Link* (setq *RX-Link* (vlax-get-or-create-object "VBScript.RegExp")))
15.       (RX:Set t t t)
16.     ) ;_ end of progn
17.   ) ;_ end of if
18.   *RX-Link*
19. ) ;_ end of defun
20.  
21. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22. ;;; Change settings for regexp
23. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24. ;;; Arguments:
25. ;;; multiline  = nil -> Stop- / t -> Don't stop at line ends
26. ;;; global     = nil -> only find 1st occurence; t -> find all occurences
27. ;;; ignorecase = nil -> case sensitive; t -> case insensitive
28. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
29. ;;; Result: undefined
30. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31. (defun RX:Set (multiline global ignorecase)
32.   (if *RX-Link*
33.     (progn
34.       (vlax-put *RX-Link*
35.                 'Multiline
36.                 (if multiline
37.                   -1
38.                   0
39.                 ) ;_ end of if
40.       ) ;_ end of vlax-put
41.       (vlax-put *RX-Link*
42.                 'Global
43.                 (if global
44.                   -1
45.                   0
46.                 ) ;_ end of if
47.       ) ;_ end of vlax-put
48.       (vlax-put *RX-Link*
49.                 'IgnoreCase
50.                 (if ignorecase
51.                   -1
52.                   0
53.                 ) ;_ end of if
54.       ) ;_ end of vlax-put
55.     ) ;_ end of progn
56.   ) ;_ end of if
57. ) ;_ end of defun
58.  
59. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
60. ;;; Find positions matching the pattern in the string
61. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
62. ;;; Arguments:
63. ;;; string      = The string to search through
64. ;;; pattern     = The regular expression patter to search for
65. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
66. ;;; Result: A list containing dotted pairs of (Position . Value)
67. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
68. ;;; Example
69. ;;; (RX:Search "\"Test,6\",34,45.6,\"48\"" "(\\s*\"[^\"]*\"\s*,)|(\\s*[^,]*\\s*,)")
70. ;;; Will return a list containing the positions & values after parsing the CVS string.
71. ;;; ((0 . "\"Test,6\",") (9 . "34,") (12 . "45.6,"))
72. ;;; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
73. (defun RX:Search (string pattern / lst col item)
74.   (if (RX:Start)
75.     (progn
76.       (vlax-Put *RX-Link* 'Pattern pattern) ;Set the pattern to match
77.       ;; Get the collection of match objects
78.       (setq col (vl-catch-all-apply 'vlax-Invoke (list *RX-Link* 'Execute string)))
79.       (if (not (vl-catch-all-error-p col))
80.         (progn
81.           ;; Loop through collection & place into return list
82.           (vlax-for item col
83.             ;; Get the position & length
84.             (setq lst (cons (cons (vlax-Get item 'FirstIndex) (vlax-Get item 'Value)) lst))
85.             (vlax-release-object item) ;Release the match object
86.           ) ;_ end of while
87.           (vlax-release-object col) ;Release the collection object
88.         ) ;_ end of progn
89.       ) ;_ end of if
90.       (reverse lst) ;Return list in correct order
91.     ) ;_ end of progn
92.   ) ;_ end of if
93. ) ;_ end of defun

As for the VLA-OBJECT nil error, ensure that vl-load-com is called at least once somewhere in your code. The Regular Expression functions uses the VBScripting RegExp ActiveX library - and you can only use that if the visual lisp com interface is loaded.

It seems to work fine for me with this code:

Code - Auto/Visual Lisp: [Select]

1. (defun AddMetric (str /)
2.   (foreach val (reverse (RX:Search str "((\\d+'[ -]\\d \\d+/\\d+\")|(\\d+'[ -]\\d\")|(\\d+')|(\\d+ \\d+/\\d+\")|(\\d+/\\d+\")|(\\d+\"))"))
3.     (setq str (vl-string-subst (strcat (cdr val) " (" (rtos (cvunit (distof (cdr val) 4) "inch" "mm") 2 0) "mm)") (cdr val) str (car val))))
4.   str)
5.  
6. (defun c:AddMetric (/ ss str)
7.   (if (and (ssget '((0 . "TEXT,MTEXT")))
8.            (setq ss (vla-get-ActiveSelectionSet (vla-get-ActiveDocument (vlax-get-acad-object)))))
9.     (progn
10.       (vlax-for eo ss
11.         (setq str (AddMetric (vla-get-TextString eo)))
12.         (if (not (eq str (vla-get-TextString eo)))
13.           (vla-put-TextString eo str)))
14.       (vla-Delete ss)))
15.   (progn))

[andrew_nao]

got it working, i was missing the vl-load-com

super thanks irneb, much appreciated

[irneb]

Glad you got it working finally. 

[andrew_nao]

ive spoken to soon again


example:
EL. 123'-10"
results in
EL. 123' (37490mm)-10" (254mm)

would this have something to do with the rs:search function inside the addmetric function?


fixed... had to add this in the search
(\\d+'[- ]\\d\\d+ \\d+/\\d+\")|(\\d+'[- ]\\d\\d+\")

[irneb]

Awesome! Glad you could figure out those RegExp codes!

Though my RegExp.LSP contains a comment at the end describing the special characters, I find it useful to search through these 2 sites for some tricks:
http://www.regular-expressions.info/examples.html
http://regexlib.com/?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1