Parsing EMail with VB6 - not splitting properly - parsing

Question

When I parse through an email that looks like:
included_po~301993959 'VBCRLF
po_no~vendor~part_no~class~type_code~buyer~qty_ordered~measure~balance_on_order~cost~amt_ordered~order_date~delivery_date~ship_Date~receive_date~open~wo_no 'VBCRLF
301993959~100000~88008K~PROBE 800~F~VAX~4.0 ~EA~4.0~100.3300~401.32000~011513~012313~012313~000000~Y~STOCK 'VBCRLF
301993959~100000~TFCI-010-50~WIRE SPTEF~F~VAX~1.0~SP~1.0~12.6400~12.64000~011513~012313~012313~000000~Y~STOCK 'VBCRLF
301993959~100000~TFIR-010-50~WIRE SPTEF~F~VAX~1.0~SP~1.0~12.6400~12.64000~011513~012313~012313~000000~Y~STOCK 'VBCRLF
using code:
Public Sub AddItems()
Dim aLineItem() As String
Dim aItem() As String
Dim i As Integer
Dim j As Integer
Dim iCnt As Double
Dim msg
Dim Item As Items
ReDim sWo(0)
iCnt = 0
For i = 1 To UBound(sMsg())
aLineItem = Split(sMsg(i), vbCrLf)
For j = 1 To UBound(aLineItem)
If aLineItem(j) <> "" Then
If blah = 1 Then
Debug.Print ("...." & aLineItem(j))
End If
aItem = Split(aLineItem(j), "~")
If (aItem(0) <> "") And (aItem(0) <> "included_po") And (aItem(0) <> "po_no") Then
Item.PO_num = GetWo(aItem(1))
If Item.PO_num <> "0" Then
Item.Company = aItem(1)
Item.Delivery_date = aItem(12)
Item.pn = aItem(2)
Item.QTY_ordered = aItem(6)
Item.Unit_Price = aItem(9)
End If 'If Item.PO_num <> "0" Then
End If 'If aItem(1) <> "" Then
End If ' If aLineItem(j) <> "" Then
Next j
Next i
End Sub
The email parsing looks like this:
....301993959~100000~88008K~PROBE
....8800~F~VAX~4.0~EA~4.0~100.3300~401.32000~011513~012313~012313~000000~Y~S
....TOCK
Is there a better way to parse this email?
EDIT #1:
Public Sub GetMailMsg()
Dim pop3 As jmail.pop3
Dim iCount As Integer
Dim i As Integer
Dim mailID As Integer
Dim j As Integer
Dim sSubject As String
j = 0
ReDim sMsg(0)
'connect to the mail box
Set pop3 = New pop3
pop3.Connect "REMOVED FOR SECURITY"
'Get message count
iCount = pop3.Count
'Read Messages
For i = 1 To iCount
sSubject = pop3.Messages.Item(i).Subject
Label1.Caption = "Reading message.." & sSubject
DoEvents
If InStr(sSubject, "China Purchase Orders") <> 0 Then 'email test
j = j + 1
ReDim Preserve sMsg(j)
sMsg(j) = pop3.Messages.Item(i).Body
Label1.Caption = "Reading mail message for order " & sSubject
If blah = 1 Then
Debug.Print ("Reading mail message for order " & sSubject)
Debug.Print ("Reading mail message for order " & sMsg(j))
End If
End If
Next
pop3.Disconnect
Set pop3 = Nothing
End SUb
--EDIT #2
OUTPUT FROM DEBUG:
Reading mail message for order China Purchase Orders
Reading mail message for order
included_po~301993959
po_no~vendor~part_no~class~type_code~buyer~qty_ordered~measure~balance_o 'VBCRLF
n_order~cost~amt_ordered~order_date~delivery_date~ship_Date~receive_date 'VBCRLF
~open~wo_no 'VBCRLF
301993959~100000~88008K~PROBE 'VBCRLF
8800~F~VAX~4.0~EA~4.0~100.3300~401.32000~011513~012313~012313~000000~Y~S 'VBCRLF
TOCK 'VBCRLF
301993959~100000~TFCI-010-50~WIRE 'VBCRLF
SPTEF~F~VAX~1.0~SP~1.0~12.6400~12.64000~011513~012313~012313~000000~Y~ST 'VBCRLF
OCK 'VBCRLF
301993959~100000~TFIR-010-50~WIRE 'VBCRLF
SPTEF~F~VAX~1.0~SP~1.0~12.6400~12.64000~011513~012313~012313~000000~Y~ST 'VBCRLF
OCK 'VBCRLF

Answer 1

Your lines aren't breaking up properly makes me think there is a problem in the line aLineItem = Split(sMsg(i), vbCrLf). Please check whether you don't have any vbCrLF in the line you aren't getting right.
Is that line one continuous line?
Edit #1 # Jan 16, 2013 1:16pm EST:
I created a file and pasted provided input.
I created a simple program and incorporated your code into it. Please see produced DEBUG below, consisting as expected with 3 lines beginning with 301993959 and ending with STOCK. This is the correct and desirable output, right?
....301993959~100000~TFCI-010-50~WIRE SPTEF~F~VAX~1.0~SP~1.0~12.6400~12.64000~011513~012313~012313~000000~Y~STOCK
....301993959~100000~TFIR-010-50~WIRE SPTEF~F~VAX~1.0~SP~1.0~12.6400~12.64000~011513~012313~012313~000000~Y~STOCK
....301993959~100000~88008K~PROBE 800~F~VAX~4.0 ~EA~4.0~100.3300~401.32000~011513~012313~012313~000000~Y~STOCK
So the code you provided is working fine. If you say the input file is fine too, that means the issue is with how you are reading that email, specifically how you populate sMsg(). Can you post that code please?
Edit #2 # Jan 16, 2013 2:32pm EST:
You are getting some unwanted vbCrLfs in your single record line and you can't split it the way you want. Here is what I suggest you do:
1) If you can modify GetMailMsg to instead of loading Body as it is, go through line by line to avoid generating unwanted vbCrLfs. I have zero experience with pop objects so I don't know if that is possible.
2) If the number of unwanted cbCrLfs is consistent, ex: 2 in a single record, then you can simply adjust your code to concatenate split records like this
DIM concatLine As String
For j = 1 To UBound(aLineItem) Step 3
concatLine = aLineItem(j) & aLineItem(j+1) & aLineItem(j+2)
If concatLine <> "" Then
If blah = 1 Then
Debug.Print ("...." & concatLine)
End If
aItem = Split(concatLine, "~")
If (aItem(0) <> "") And (aItem(0) <> "included_po") And (aItem(0) <> "po_no") Then
Item.PO_num = GetWo(aItem(1))
If Item.PO_num <> "0" Then
Item.Company = aItem(1)
Item.Delivery_date = aItem(12)
Item.pn = aItem(2)
Item.QTY_ordered = aItem(6)
Item.Unit_Price = aItem(9)
End If 'If Item.PO_num <> "0" Then
End If 'If aItem(1) <> "" Then
End If ' If concatLine <> "" Then
Next j
3) or better yet, concat string until you reach the end of the record and then split that concatenated string.
DIM concatLine As String
DIM detailsRecord as Integer
For detailsRecord = 1 To UBound(aLineItem)
if LCase(Right(aLineItem(detailsRecord),5)) = 'wo_no' Then Exit For ' when we find this tag, we know where details record begin
Next detailsRecord
For j = detailsRecord + 1 To UBound(aLineItem) ' begin looping detail records
concatLine = concatLine + aLineItem(j)
If UCase(Right(aLineItem(j), 5)) = "STOCK" Then ' this is your end of the record indicator
If blah = 1 Then
Debug.Print ("...." & concatLine)
End If
aItem = Split(concatLine, "~")
If (aItem(0) <> "") Then
Item.PO_num = GetWo(aItem(1))
If Item.PO_num <> "0" Then
Item.Company = aItem(1)
Item.Delivery_date = aItem(12)
Item.pn = aItem(2)
Item.QTY_ordered = aItem(6)
Item.Unit_Price = aItem(9)
End If 'If Item.PO_num <> "0" Then
End If 'If aItem(1) <> "" Then
End If ' If concatLine <> "" Then
concatLine = ""
Next j
For cases 2 and 3, don't forget to handle the headers first- you will have to move If (aItem(0) <> "") And (aItem(0) <> "included_po") And (aItem(0) <> "po_no") outside the main loop to handle header records (i believe the first 2 or records are headers).
EDIT #3:
I fixed scenario #3 to skip through the header records (assuming 'wo_no' is an indicator of the end of that record), then to concatenate strings to form a single record by searching for an end tag ("STOCK"). This method is going to be flexible enough to handle dynamic number of vbCrLfs in the email body that splits a single record into unpredictable number of strings.
The code was typed in the browser, so I don't guarantee it will work :)

Answer 2

Since you know what should start each line, then use the Split function using "301993959".
Dim LineItems(100) As String
x = Split(sMsg(i), "301993959")
For j = 1 To UBound(x) - 1 'Don't use 0 becuase you don't need that part
LineItems(j - 1) = x(j)
Next i
Of Course you could take it one step further by then splitting each item in the string using "~" as your second delimiter.
Dim LineItems(100, 15) As String
x = Split(Text1.Text, "301993959")
For j = 1 To UBound(x) - 1 'Don't use 0 becuase you don't need that part
y = Split(x(j), "~")
For k = 1 To 15
LineItems(j - 1, k) = y(k)
Next k
Next j