by Brett Cramer (1 Submission)
Category: String Manipulation
Compatability: Visual Basic 3.0
Difficulty: Unknown Difficulty
Date Added: Wed 3rd February 2021
Rating: 
(4 Votes)
I use ExtractArgument (written by my friend Mike Carper) all the time. It returns an argument or token from a string based on its position within another string and a delimiter. For example: I want the "2" in the following string: "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10".
'Sample call
'Dim sList as string
'Dim sTown as string
'sList = "POB 145,Dexter Street,Anytown,USA"
'sTown = ExtractArgument(3, sList, ",")
'sTown will be "Anytown"
I find this very useful in working with delimited files and strings, and have implemented it in INI settings as well.
Inputs
ArgNum As Integer
srchstr As String
Delim As String
Code Returns
The argument desired in a string format
VBcodersFunction ExtractArgument (ArgNum As Integer, srchstr As String, Delim As String) As String
'Extract an argument or token from a string based on its position
'and a delimiter.
On Error GoTo Err_ExtractArgument
Dim ArgCount As Integer
Dim LastPos As Integer
Dim Pos As Integer
Dim Arg As String
Arg = ""
LastPos = 1
If ArgNum = 1 Then Arg = srchstr
Do While InStr(srchstr, Delim) > 0
Pos = InStr(LastPos, srchstr, Delim)
If Pos = 0 Then
'No More Args found
If ArgCount = ArgNum - 1 Then Arg = Mid(srchstr, LastPos)
Exit Do
Else
ArgCount = ArgCount + 1
If ArgCount = ArgNum Then
Arg = Mid(srchstr, LastPos, Pos - LastPos)
Exit Do
End If
End If
LastPos = Pos + 1
Loop
'---------
ExtractArgument = Arg
Exit Function
Err_ExtractArgument:
MsgBox "Error " & Err & ": " & Error
Resume Next
End Function
