Delphi: VK_SPACE, the right key - delphi

I am a little perplexed. On :
http://delphi.about.com/od/objectpascalide/l/blvkc.htm
it says that the right key for "Space" is #20. Tried that and it will not work.
However, replacing it with #32 seems to work :
procedure TForm14.cxTextEdit5KeyPress(Sender: TObject; var Key: Char);
begin
if not (Key in [#8,#32, '0'..'9']) then begin
ShowMessage('Only numbers !');
Key := #0;
end;
end;
So now I am unsure if this will work on all Windows versions ?

Yes. VK_SPACE is defined as 0x20 (in C notation hexadecimal value 20 which is equal to 32) in all versions of Windows.
Your link lists hexadecimal values, too.
Edit
As David points out, the virtual key code VK_SPACE is irrelevant in the context of an OnKeyPress event handler. (The fact that it's defined with the ASCII value of the space character should be treated as coincidental.)
You can simply rely on the fact that #32 is the correct notation for the space character (also #$20 or simply ' ').

It says that the right key for "Space" is #20.
No it does not. #20 is the character with ordinal of 20 decimal. The table you refer to contains hexadecimal values. VK_SPACE is a virtual key code, an integer, whose value is 32 in decimal, 20 in hexadecimal.
However, virtual key codes are not used by the OnKeyPress event handler and the value of VK_SPACE is simply not relevant to your question. The OnKeyPress event handler uses UTF-16 character codes. The UTF-16 character code for a space is 32 decimal, 20 hexadecimal. If you use a pre-Unicode Delphi, OnKeyPress uses ANSI instead of UTF-16.
It is worth remembering that OnKeyPress uses UTF-16/ANSI codes because it corresponds to WM_CHAR. And OnKeyDown and OnKeyUp use virtual key codes by way of being triggered from WM_KEYDOWN and WM_KEYUP.

Related

Delphi - check if a Unicode character occurs in a set of characters?

This code works good with Delphi-7 (until Delphi had Unicode support):
Value := edit1.Text[1];
if Value in ['м', 'ж'] then ...
'м', 'ж' - cyrillic symbols
But this construction doesn't work with Unicode charachter.
I try a lot of things, but they are doesn't work.
I also tried changing the value types to "Char" and "AnsiChar".
Doesn't work:
const
MySet : set of WideChar = [WideChar('м'), WideChar('ж')];
begin
Value := edit1.Text[1];
if Value in MySet then ...
Doesn't work:
if AnsiChar(Value) in ['м', 'ж'] then ...
Doesn't work:
if CharInSet(Value, ['м', 'ж']) then ...
But this works good:
if (Value = 'м') or (Value = 'ж') then ...
Whether there is an opportunity to check up UNICODE character by use of a SET in the modern versions of Delphi?
Or should we check each character individually?
My Delphi version is 10.4 update 2 Community Edition
A Delphi set type can only handle a maximum of 256 values, so it cannot be used for handling Unicode characters. For handling Unicode, the System.Character unit provides various methods and helpers.
For this particular case, there is an IsInArray() character helper you can use. Instead of declaring a set of characters, you will need to declare an array of characters:
var
ch: Char;
a: array of Char;
s: string;
begin
a := ['м', 'ж'];
s := 'abcж';
for ch in s do
if ch.IsInArray(a) then ...
end;
Note: Delphi XE7 introduced additional language support for initializing and working with dynamic arrays, and square brackets can also be used for simpler array initialization. In the context of above example, ['м', 'ж'] is not a set, but an array of wide characters.
check if a Unicode character occurs in a set of characters?
Do you mean a Delphi set?
In general, it is impossible to have a set of X where the base type X has more than 256 possible distinct values. So set of Byte is fine, but set of Word isn't possible. Since there are 256 * 256 distinct wide character values, it is therefore impossible to have a set of wide characters. (If this were indeed possible, a variable of such a set type would be 8 kB in size. That would be an unusually large variable.)
Since there is no such thing as "Delphi set of Unicode characters", the question "How to see if a character belongs to a Delphi set of Unicode characters" doesn't make sense.
Or do you simply mean a mathematical set?
If so, of course this is possible, but you cannot use a Delphi set to represent the mathematical set of characters. Instead, you need to use some other data type. One possibility is a simple array, if you don't mind its O(n) characteristics.

Getting a unicode, hidden symbol, as data in Delphi

I'm writing a delimiter for some Excel spreadsheet data and I need to read the rightward arrow symbol and pilcrow symbol in a large string.
The pilcrow symbol, for row ends, was fairly simply, using the Chr function and the AnsiChar code 182.
The rightward arrow has been more tricky to figure out. There isn't an AnsiChar code for it. The Unicode value for it is '2192'. I can't, however, figure out how to make this into a string or char type for me to use in my function.
Any easy ways to do this?
You can't use the 2192 character directly. But since a STRING variable can't contain this value either (as thus your TStringList can't either), that doesn't matter.
What character(s) are the 2192 character represented as in your StringList AFTER you have read it in? Probably by these three separate characters: 0xE2 0x86 0x92 (in UTF-8 format). The simple solution, therefore, is to start by replacing these three characters with a single, unique character that you can then assign to the Delimiter field of the TStringList.
Like this:
.
.
.
<Read file into a STRING variable, say S>
S := ReplaceStr(S,#$E2#$86#$92,'|');
SL := TStringList.Create;
SL.Text := S;
SL.Delimiter := '|';
.
.
.
You'll have to select a single-character representation of your 3-byte UTF-8 Unicode character that doesn't occur in your data elsewhere.
You need to represent that character as a UTF-16 character. In Unicode Delphi you would do it like this:
Chr(2192)
which is of type WideChar.
However, you are using Delphi 7 which is a pre-Unicode Delphi. So you have to do it like this:
var
wc: WideChar;
....
wc := WideChar(2192);
Now, this might all be to no avail for you since it sounds a little like your code is working with 8 bit ANSI text. In which case that character cannot be encoded in any 8 bit ANSI character set. If you really must use that character, you'll need to use Unicode text.

Error because of quote char after converting file to string with Delphi XE?

I have incorrect result when converting file to string in Delphi XE. There are several ' characters that makes the result incorrect. I've used UnicodeFileToWideString and FileToString from http://www.delphidabbler.com/codesnip and my code :
function LoadFile(const FileName: TFileName): ansistring;
begin
with TFileStream.Create(FileName, fmOpenRead or fmShareDenyWrite) do
begin
try
SetLength(Result, Size);
Read(Pointer(Result)^, Size);
// ReadBuffer(Result[1], Size);
except
Result := '';
Free;
end;
Free;
end;
end;
The result between Delphi XE and Delphi 6 is different. The result from D6 is correct. I've compared with result of a hex editor program.
Your output is being produced in the style of the Delphi debugger, which displays string variables using Delphi's own string-literal format. Whatever function you're using to produce that output from your own program has actually been fixed for Delphi XE. It's really your Delphi 6 output that's incorrect.
Delphi string literals consist of a series of printable characters between apostrophes and a series of non-printable characters designated by number signs and the numeric values of each character. To represent an apostrophe, write two of them next to each other. The printable and non-printable series of characters can be written right not to each other; there's no need to concatenate them with the + operator.
Here's an excerpt from the output you say is correct:
#$12'O)=ù'dlû'#6't
There are four lone apostrophes in that string, so each one either opens or closes a series of printable characters. We don't necessarily know which is which when we start reading the string at the left because the #, $, 1, and 2 characters are all printable on their own. But if they represent printable characters, then the 0, ), =, and ù characters are in the non-printable region, and that can't be. Therefore, the first apostrophe above opens a printable series, and the #$12 part represents the character at code 18 (12 in hexadecimal). After the ù is another apostrophe. Since the previous one opened a printable string, this one must close it. But the next character after that is d, which is not #, and therefore cannot be the start of a non-printable character code. Therefore, this string from your Delphi 6 code is mal-formed.
The correct version of that excerpt is this:
#$12'O)=ù''dlû'#6't
Now there are three lone apostrophes and one set of doubled apostrophes. The problematic apostrophe from the previous string has been doubled, indicating that it is a literal apostrophe instead of a printable-string-closing one. The printable series continues with dlû. Then it's closed to insert character No. 6, and then opened again for t. The apostrophe that opens the entire string, at the beginning of the file, is implicit.
You haven't indicated what code you're using to produce the output you've shown, but that's where the problem was. It's not there anymore, and the code that loads the file is correct, so the only place that needs your debugging attention is any code that depended on the old, incorrect format. You'd still do well to replace your code with that of Robmil since it does better at handling (or not handling) exceptions and empty files.
Actually, looking at the real data, your problem is that the file stores binary data, not string data, so interpreting this as a string is not valid at all. The only reason it works at all in Delphi 6 is that non-Unicode Delphi allows you to treat binary data and strings the same way. You cannot do this in Unicode Delphi, nor should you.
The solution to get the actual text from within the file is to read the file as binary data, and then copy any values from this binary data, one byte at a time, to a string if it is a "valid" Ansi character (printable).
I will suggest the code:
function LoadFile(const FileName: TFileName): AnsiString;
begin
with TFileStream.Create(FileName, fmOpenRead or fmShareDenyWrite) do
try
SetLength(Result, Size);
if Size > 0 then
Read(Result[1], Size);
finally
Free;
end;
end;

convert string character to ascii in delphi

How can i convert string character (123-jhk25) to ASCII in Delphi7
If you mean the ASCII code for the character you need to use the Ord() function which returns the Ordinal value of any "enumerable" type
In this case it works on character values, returning a byte:
var
Asc : Byte;
i : Integer;
begin
for i := 1 to Length(s) do
begin
Asc := Ord(s[i]);
// do something with Asc
end;
end;
It depends on your Delphi version. In Delphi 2007 and before, strings are automatically in ANSI string format, and anything below 128 is an ASCII character.
In D2009 and later, things become more complicated since the default string type is UnicodeString. You'll have to cast the character to AnsiChar. It'll perform a codepage conversion, and then whatever you end up with may or may not work depending on which language the character in question came from. But if it was originally an ASCII character, it should convert without trouble.

Delphi 2009 RawByteString vagaries

Suppose that for some perverse reason you want to display the raw byte contents of a UTF8String.
var
utf8Str : UTF8String;
begin
utf8Str := '€ąćęłńóśźż';
end;
(1) This doesn't do, it displays the readable form:
memo1.Lines.Add( RawByteString( utf8Str ));
// output: '€ąćęłńóśźż'
(2) This, however, does "work" - note the concatenation:
memo1.Lines.Add( 'x' + RawByteString( utf8Str ));
// output: 'x€ąćęłńóśźż'
I understand (1), though the compiler's forced coerction to UnicodeString seems to prevent ever displaying a RawByteString var as-is. However, why does the behavior change in (2)?
(3) Stranger still - let's reverse the concatenation:
memo1.Lines.Add( RawByteString( utf8Str ) + 'x' );
// output: '€ąćęłńóśźżx'
I've been reading up on the newfangled string types in Delphi and thought I understood how they work, but this is a puzzle.
RawByteString only exists to minimize the number of overloads required for functions that work with various flavours of AnsiStrings with different codepage affinities.
In general, don't declare variables of type RawByteString. Don't typecast values to that type. Don't do concatenations on variables of that type. About the only things you can do are:
Declaring a parameter of this type (the original intent)
Indexing on such a parameter
Searching in such a parameter
Intelligent operations that check the actual code page of the string, using the StringCodePage function.
For example, you'll note that the StringCodePage function itself uses RawByteString as its argument type. This way, it will work with any AnsiString, rather than doing a codepage translation before passing it as an argument.
For your case, things like concatenations are largely undefined. The behaviour changed between RTM and Update 2, but when the RTL string concatenation functions receive multiple strings with different code pages, there's no easy way for it to figure out what code page should be used for the final string. That's just one reason why you shouldn't concatenate them like you do here.
You cannot add a string to a TMemo "as is". You always need to so some kind of conversion to Unicode, because that's all TMemo knows about in Delphi 2009.
If you want to pretend that your UTF8String uses code page 1252, do this:
var
utf8Str : UTF8String;
Raw: RawByteString;
begin
utf8Str := '€ąćęłńóśźż';
Raw := utf8Str;
SetCodePage(Raw, 1252, False);
Memo.Lines.Add(Raw);
end;
For more details, see my article Using RawByteString Effectively

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