Visual Basic help needed to use Replace functionality

[yugpatel]

I am trying to parse the following lines of data:
Slot : "6" "Feeder" : "12mm/8mm Tape" "Component ID" : "WLK0148" "Feeder Slot" : "6" "Rotation" : "0.000"
Slot : "15" "Feeder" : "Belt Reject" "Component ID" : "WLK0148" "Feeder Slot" : "15" "Rotation" : "0.000"
Slot : "8" "Feeder" : "12mm/8mm Tape" "Component ID" : "400010-001" "Feeder Slot" : "8" "Rotation" : "0.000"
............
............
............ so forth and so on......

where slot, feeder, Component ID, Feeder Slot and Rotation are datafields and value next to each of them is value corresponding to each field.
I want to parse these lines so that I can get the following output:
slot[tab] Feeder[TAB] Component ID[TAB] Feeder Slot[TAB]Rotation
6[TAB]12mm/8mm Tape[TAB]................

How can I do this in VB?

I tried to use Replace function with "blank" (quotes inclusive) with |(pipe) as search string as follow but I got syntax error:
Replace(sourceString, " '"' '"' ", "|")
What is the correct syntax?
TIA....

 

[igowerf]

You'd probably have go escape the quotes. You can't just quote some quotes. How is VB supposed to know where the quoted string ends?

Replace(sourceString, " '\"' '\"' ", "|")

Mabe escape the single quotes too?

Replace(sourceString, " \'\"\' \'\"\' ", "|")

If that doesn't work, you can use ascii values and the Chr() function. I haven't done VB in a while so I'm a little fuzzy on it.

Also, I thought you were trying to make it tab delimited. What's with searching for quotes and pipes and whatnot?

 

[noxxic]

A single quote is """" (that's " 4x), and a tab is vbTab or chr(9).

If you are using VB.NET, I think it now has a regex library and you may want to try that also.

 

[igowerf]

Oh yeah. I remember now. What a horrible way of making quotes.

 

[yugpatel]

Originally posted by: igowerf
You'd probably have go escape the quotes. You can't just quote some quotes. How is VB supposed to know where the quoted string ends?

Replace(sourceString, " '\"' '\"' ", "|")

Mabe escape the single quotes too?

Replace(sourceString, " \'\"\' \'\"\' ", "|")

If that doesn't work, you can use ascii values and the Chr() function. I haven't done VB in a while so I'm a little fuzzy on it.

Also, I thought you were trying to make it tab delimited. What's with searching for quotes and pipes and whatnot?

A friend of mine suggested using escape character but I don't know how exactly I would to that. I tried your Replace example but got compilation error. Speaking of ascii and char(0, can you guide me how to do that?
Thanks for your help.

 

[igowerf]

Google for an ascii table so you can figure out which numbers mean which characters. For example, chr(32) is a space.

Also, I believe I was wrong about escaping with a \, as noxxic pointed out. I think in VB, you put quotes within quotes by using two double quotes.

" ""This is a sentence surrounded by quotes."" "

To add a tab, just go "my string" & vbTab.

 

[BZ]

resultString = Replace(sourceString, """ """, Chr(9))
that's 3 quotes a space and 3 more quotes. chr(9) is tab but you can also use vbtab. I believe quote is 34 if the above doesn't work

 

[yugpatel]

Originally posted by: BZ
resultString = Replace(sourceString, """ """, Chr(9))
that's 3 quotes a space and 3 more quotes. chr(9) is tab but you can also use vbtab. I believe quote is 34 if the above doesn't work

Thanks to all of you. It works...with resultString = Replace(sourceString, """ """, Chr(9)).