Parsing variable containing strings delimited by null character

Hi,

I'm using DOORS 8.1 (on Windows XP) and I was wondering if there's any way to parse a variable that contains multiple strings delimited by a null character.

I'm using OleAutomation to launch a multi-select file dialog box (specifically UserAccounts.CommonDialog) and the problem is if the user selects more than one file, the files are returned in a string where they are separated by the null character.

As far as I know as soon a null character is encountered, DXL terminates the string. So right now, the only data I can return from the dialog box is the first string which is only the filepath.

Here's my code snippet if anyone would like to give it a try...
 

Module m = current
 
 OleAutoObj objCD = null
 OleAutoArgs args = create 
 
 //array dynamically resizes, set it low to start
 Array arrFiles = create (2, 2)
 
 OleAutoObj objFSO = oleCreateAutoObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
 bool doSave = false
 
 string strResult = ""
 string strLocalFiles = ""
 int intResult = 0
 int intAns = 0
 
 // Prompt user for file selection
 objCD = oleCreateAutoObject("userAccounts.CommonDialog") 
 
 //display all files in the folder
 strResult = olePut(objCD, "filter", "All files|*.*")
 if (strResult != "") then ack "filter failed: " strResult "\n"
 
 strResult = olePut(objCD, "InitialDir", "C:\\")
 if (strResult != "") then ack "InitalDir failed: " strResult " \n"
 
 int hexnum = 0X0200 | 0X80000    //200 = multi-select, 80000 = Explorer dialog box
 strResult = olePut(objCD, "Flags", hexnum)
 if (strResult != "") then ack "Flags failed: " strResult " \n"
 
// strResult = olePut(objCD, "MaxFileSize", 256)
// if (strResult != "") then ack "MaxFileSize failed: " strResult " \n"
 
 //display dialog box
 strResult = oleMethod (objCD, "showOpen", null, intAns)
 
 if (strResult != "") {
     ack "showOpen failed: " strResult " \n"
     halt
 }
  
 if (intAns != 1) {
     ack "No file selected \n"
     halt
 }
 
 //retrieve list of filenames 
 strResult = oleGet(objCD, "Filename", strLocalFiles)
 if (strResult != "") {
    ack "FileName failed: " strResult " \n"
    halt
 }
 
print strLocalFiles "\n"

Re: Parsing variable containing strings delimited by null character
llandale - Wed Oct 06 17:48:41 EDT 2010

• Louie

Re: Parsing variable containing strings delimited by null character
Mathias Mamsch - Wed Oct 06 19:03:44 EDT 2010

Interesting question! Unfortunately you are out of luck with parsing, since COM will not copy the result over a null-character. Appending the below to your code, shows the tragedy.
 

print "Files:" strLocalFiles "\n"
print "Parsing:" 
int *ptr = addr_ strLocalFiles 
 
while (*ptr & 0x255 > 0) {
    print charOf(*ptr)
        ptr ++
}; ptr ++  // Skip the 0 character ...
 
print "\n" // get the second string ...
while (*ptr & 0x255 > 0) {
        print charOf(*ptr)
        ptr ++
}; ptr ++

The same problem exists in VBA by the way! So, what can you do? Why don't you use the old Win3.1 dialog?

...
int hexnum = 0X0200  // don't use fancy dialogs ...
...

seems to use other separators.

Regards, Mathias

Mathias Mamsch, IT-QBase GmbH, Consultant for Requirement Engineering and D00RS

Re: Parsing variable containing strings delimited by null character
dasilvaa - Thu Oct 07 08:44:44 EDT 2010

print "Files:" strLocalFiles "\n"
print "Parsing:" 
int *ptr = addr_ strLocalFiles 
 
while (*ptr & 0x255 > 0) {
    print charOf(*ptr)
        ptr ++
}; ptr ++  // Skip the 0 character ...
 
print "\n" // get the second string ...
while (*ptr & 0x255 > 0) {
        print charOf(*ptr)
        ptr ++
}; ptr ++

...
int hexnum = 0X0200  // don't use fancy dialogs ...
...

Re: Parsing variable containing strings delimited by null character
Mathias Mamsch - Fri Oct 08 07:23:40 EDT 2010

Re: Parsing variable containing strings delimited by null character
dasilvaa - Fri Oct 08 10:30:04 EDT 2010

Re: Parsing variable containing strings delimited by null character
Mathias Mamsch - Sat Oct 09 14:05:23 EDT 2010

Hmm ... then it might be the best, if you help yourself another way, for example, doing a select one file dialog, coupled with an "add" button and a listview.

One chance that you could have is, to automate Internet Explorer (provided you have Internet Explorer 7.0+), which supports HTML 5 and with it multiple file dialogs.

You can translate the following VB Code. Note that you might have other COM components which support Multi-File-Browsers (e.g. Excels 'GetOpenFilename') - unfortunately if they return a string array (like the mentioned GetOpenFilename), you cannot process its results with DOORS (since IBM/Rational/Telelogic did not come around to support COM array types).

I guess that is all I can do, regards, Mathias
 

Function ChooseFile()
    ChooseFile = ""
    Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
    IE.Visible = False
    IE.Navigate ("about:blank")
    Do Until IE.ReadyState = 4
    Loop
    IE.Document.Write "<HTML><BODY><INPUT ID=""Fil"" name=""files[]"" Type=""file"" multiple=""""></BODY></HTML>"
    IE.Height = "0"
    IE.Width = "0"
    IE.Visible = True
    With IE.Document.all.Fil
        .Focus
        .Click
        ChooseFile = .Value
    End With
    IE.Quit
    Set IE = Nothing
End Function

Mathias Mamsch, IT-QBase GmbH, Consultant for Requirement Engineering and D00RS

Re: Parsing variable containing strings delimited by null character
dasilvaa - Wed Oct 13 09:19:39 EDT 2010

Function ChooseFile()
    ChooseFile = ""
    Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
    IE.Visible = False
    IE.Navigate ("about:blank")
    Do Until IE.ReadyState = 4
    Loop
    IE.Document.Write "<HTML><BODY><INPUT ID=""Fil"" name=""files[]"" Type=""file"" multiple=""""></BODY></HTML>"
    IE.Height = "0"
    IE.Width = "0"
    IE.Visible = True
    With IE.Document.all.Fil
        .Focus
        .Click
        ChooseFile = .Value
    End With
    IE.Quit
    Set IE = Nothing
End Function