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digitalmars.D.learn - Append & delete text in the middle of a file

reply Heinz <billgates microsoft.com> writes:
Hi,
I'm trying to replace a value that's in the middle of a text file (using class
File: std.stream.Stream). I'm able to set the cursor position to the beginning
of the value but in order to replace it i must delete it and append text,
there's no way or members to delete chars with the stream class neither append
text (except at eof). The provided write operations replace the value but it
also replaces other text because the data to write is longer than the original
value.

Does anybody have an idea to help me?

Thanx guys.
Jan 10 2007
parent reply Heinz <billgates microsoft.com> writes:
== Quote from Heinz (billgates microsoft.com)'s article

 Hi,
 I'm trying to replace a value that's in the middle of a text file (using class
 File: std.stream.Stream). I'm able to set the cursor position to the beginning
 of the value but in order to replace it i must delete it and append text,
 there's no way or members to delete chars with the stream class neither append
 text (except at eof). The provided write operations replace the value but it
 also replaces other text because the data to write is longer than the original
 value.
 Does anybody have an idea to help me?
 Thanx guys.


By 'append' i mean 'insert'. Anyway you can't insert text just like that into
the
middle of a file so i'll use a slice stream from the end of the value to the end
of file then i'll append this slice in the end of the written value.
Jan 10 2007
parent Daniel Keep <daniel.keep+lists gmail.com> writes:
Heinz wrote:

 == Quote from Heinz (billgates microsoft.com)'s article
 

Hi,
I'm trying to replace a value that's in the middle of a text file (using class
File: std.stream.Stream). I'm able to set the cursor position to the beginning
of the value but in order to replace it i must delete it and append text,
there's no way or members to delete chars with the stream class neither append
text (except at eof). The provided write operations replace the value but it
also replaces other text because the data to write is longer than the original
value.
Does anybody have an idea to help me?
Thanx guys.


 
 
 By 'append' i mean 'insert'. Anyway you can't insert text just like that into
the
 middle of a file so i'll use a slice stream from the end of the value to the
end
 of file then i'll append this slice in the end of the written value.


To be honest, I can't really think of any way to just insert data into 
the middle of a file.  Ages ago, when I last did something like this, 
the way I did it was to create a second "output" file.  I would read in 
records one at a time, and stream them out to the output file, which 
allowed me to do inserts, deletes and modifications on the fly.  At the 
end, you can either use the filesystem to delete the old file and move 
the new one into its' place or just copy the data from the new output 
file to the old input file.

One final thought: if the format your data is in isn't hugely important, 
you might want to consider playing with Sqlite.  That way, you don't 
have to worry about how to do things like inserts or deletes.

Hope this is of some help, and sorry I couldn't solve your problem 
directly :)

	-- Daniel
Jan 14 2007