SRL Archive - Help

In all my time coding, I never really had to do much with string manipulation, however, I do need some help with it now. I have a string, which varies in length, and the bit I want is in the centre. This is an example of the string

have a chocolate bar for free.

I want the 'chocolate bar' section, which can change, the 'have a ' section and the ' for free.' section stay the same length ('have a ' is 7 and ' for free.' is 10).

how can I remove that middle portion of the string…

and for the record this is for a reflection - Sandwich Lady random solver.

Copy(pos('have a ', s), pos(' for free', s), s);

thanks

Edit: yeah, thats not quite right, for starters, the string is the first input into Copy, and that (when S is moved to the front gave me… 'have a chocolate bar ' - and yes there should be that space there…

Copy(s, pos('have a ', s) + 7, pos(' for free', s) - 8);

Between('have a ', ' for free', s);

Another thing you can do, which is not as efficient but:

Create a TStringArray of all the compiled phrases the woman says, and then just check them all with a for loop.

Ex:

function DetermineItemToPick : Integer;
var WhatSheSays : TStringArray; // Lolololol [sorry]
     i : Integer;
     LadyText : String;
begin
  WhatSheSays := ['Have a chocolate bar for free.', 'have a whatever for free']; // etc...
  LadyText := GetInterfaceText (parent, child); // Fill these in
  result := -1;
  for i:=0 to high (WhatSheSays) do
  begin
    if LadyText = WhatSheSays[0] then result := i;
  end;
end;

function GetItemID (numberType : Integer) : Integer;
begin
  if numberType = -1 then WarnUserTheyreScrewed;
  case numberType of
  0: result := 1233; // Whatever ID matches the phrase
  1: result := 3494; // etc...
  end;
end;

Then work it into a procedure.

Just an idea :)

Or you could explode the string into a TSA and then read it like that. :3 I'd do that, personally, because it can be used for anything really. Read the string off the chat, explode it, and see if TSA + TSA (etc. etc.) == StringToMatch('whatever'). If yes, you've got it. :)

From: i luffs yeww
Or you could explode the string into a TSA and then read it like that. :3 I'd do that, personally, because it can be used for anything really. Read the string off the chat, explode it, and see if TSA + TSA (etc. etc.) == StringToMatch('whatever'). If yes, you've got it. :)

How do you explode the string into a TSA?

Explode(string, TSA); ?

Also does that mean turn it into a singe letter like:

Explode ('lol',TSA) –> TSA['l','o','l'];

Explode(' ', 'Hi How are you today?');

Gives you an array of strings:

['Hi','How', 'are', 'you', 'today?']

The first parameter is the delimiter or the thing that separates your string into an array.

Explode(',', 'Hi,How,are,you,today?');

would have the same effect.

But yeah, most efficient way would be to use Between like how Dgby posted.

But, in my opinion, the most fun thing would be exploding and imploding and what not. :3 And you'd learn a lot more, tbh.

From: i luffs yeww
But, in my opinion, the most fun thing would be exploding and imploding and what not. :3 And you'd learn a lot more, tbh.

We're talking about a random solver here, its not meant to be fun, its meant to be efficient.

The difference in speed is negligible, in my opinion.

From: i luffs yeww
The difference in speed is negligible, in my opinion.

In this particular case perhaps, but in general practice: if you're coding for other people to implement into a bigger project, you want the code to efficient. No one really cares if you learnt anything from it. Just saying…