I need to use a TRichEdit at runtime to perform the rtf to text conversion as discussed here. I succeded in doing this but I had to set a dummy form as parent if not I cannot populate the TRichedit.Lines. (Error: parent is missing).
I paste my funciton below, can anyone suggest a way to avoid to define a parent? Can you also comment on this and tell me if you find a more performant idea?
Note: I need a string, not TStrings as output, this is why it has been designed like this.
function RtfToText(const RTF: string;ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace: Boolean): string;
var
RTFConverter: TRichEdit;
MyStringStream: TStringStream;
i: integer;
CustomLineFeed: string;
begin
if ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace then
CustomLineFeed := ' '
else
CustomLineFeed := #13;
try
RTFConverter := TRichEdit.Create(nil);
try
MyStringStream := TStringStream.Create(RTF);
RTFConverter.parent := Form4; // this is the part I don't like
RTFConverter.Lines.LoadFromStream(MyStringStream);
RTFConverter.PlainText := True;
for i := 0 to RTFConverter.Lines.Count - 1 do
begin
if i < RTFConverter.Lines.Count - 1 then
Result := Result + RTFConverter.Lines[i] + CustomLineFeed
else
Result := Result + RTFConverter.Lines[i];
end;
finally
MyStringStream.Free;
end;
finally
RTFConverter.Free;
end;
end;
UPDATE:
After the answer I updated the function and write it here for reference:
function RtfToText(const RTF: string;ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace: Boolean): string;
var
RTFConverter: TRichEdit;
MyStringStream: TStringStream;
begin
RTFConverter := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
try
MyStringStream := TStringStream.Create(RTF);
try
RTFConverter.Lines.LoadFromStream(MyStringStream);
RTFConverter.PlainText := True;
RTFConverter.Lines.StrictDelimiter := True;
if ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace then
RTFConverter.Lines.Delimiter := ' '
else
RTFConverter.Lines.Delimiter := #13;
Result := RTFConverter.Lines.DelimitedText;
finally
MyStringStream.Free;
end;
finally
RTFConverter.Free;
end;
end;
TRichEdit control is an wrapper around the RichEdit control in Windows. Windows's controls are... well.. Windows, and they need an Window Handle to work. Delphi needs to call CreateWindow or CreateWindowEx to create the Handle, and both routines need an valid parent Window Handle to work. Delphi tries to use the handle of the control's parent (and it makes sense!). Happily one can use an alternative constructor (the CreateParanted(HWND) constructor) and the nice people at Microsoft made up the HWND_MESSAGE to be used as parent for windows that don't actually need a "window" (messaging-only).
This code works as expected:
procedure TForm2.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
var R:TRichEdit;
L:TStringList;
begin
R := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
try
R.PlainText := False;
R.Lines.LoadFromFile('C:\Temp\text.rtf');
R.PlainText := True;
Memo1.Lines.Text := R.Lines.Text;
finally
R.Free;
end;
end;
This is part of the way the VCL works, and you're not going to get it to work differently without some heavy workarounds. But you don't need to define a dummy form to be the parent; just use your current form and set visible := false; on the TRichEdit.
If you really want to improve performance, though, you could throw out that loop you're using to build a result string. It has to reallocate and copy memory a lot. Use the Text property of TrichEdit.Lines to get a CRLF between each line, and DelimitedText to get somethimg else, such as spaces. They use an internal buffer that's only allocated once, which will speed up the concatenation quite a bit if you're working with a lot of text.
I use DrawRichText to draw RTF without a RichEdit control. (IIRC this is called Windowless Rich Edit Controls.) Maybe you can use this also for converting - however I have never tried this.
This has been the most helpfull for me to get started with TRichEdit, but not with the conversion. This however works as expected and you don't need to set the Line Delimiter:
// RTF to Plain:
procedure TForm3.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
l:TStringList;
s:WideString;
RE:TRichEdit;
ss:TStringStream;
begin
ss := TStringStream.Create;
s := Memo1.Text; // Input String
RE := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
l := TStringList.Create;
l.Add(s);
ss.Position := 0;
l.SaveToStream(ss);
ss.Position := 0;
RE.Lines.LoadFromStream(ss);
Memo2.Text := RE.Text; // Output String
end;
// Plain to RTF:
procedure TForm3.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
var
RE:TRichEdit;
ss:TStringStream;
begin
RE := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
RE.Text := Memo2.Text; // Input String
ss := TStringStream.Create;
ss.Position := 0;
RE.Lines.SaveToStream(ss);
ss.Position := 0;
Memo1.Text := ss.ReadString(ss.Size); // Output String
end;
I'm using the TStringList "l" in the conversion to plain because somehow the TStringStream puts every single character in a new line.
Edit: Made the code a bit nicer and removed unused variables.
Related
In Delphi 10.4, I try to save a valid TPicture base64-encoded to an INI file:
procedure TForm1.SavePictureToIniFile(const APicture: TPicture);
var
LInput: TMemoryStream;
LOutput: TMemoryStream;
MyIni: TIniFile;
ThisFile: string;
begin
if FileSaveDialog1.Execute then
ThisFile := FileSaveDialog1.FileName
else EXIT;
LInput := TMemoryStream.Create;
LOutput := TMemoryStream.Create;
try
APicture.SaveToStream(LInput);
LInput.Position := 0;
TNetEncoding.Base64.Encode(LInput, LOutput);
LOutput.Position := 0;
MyIni := TIniFile.Create(ThisFile);
try
MyIni.WriteBinaryStream('Custom', 'IMG', LOutput); // Exception# 234
finally
MyIni.Free;
end;
finally
LInput.Free;
LOutput.Free;
end;
end;
WriteBinaryStream creates an exception:
ERROR_MORE_DATA 234 (0xEA) More data is available.
Why? What does this mean? How can this problem be solved?
EDIT: Taking into consideration what #Uwe Raabe and #Andreas Rejbrand said, this code (which does not use base64-encoding) now works:
procedure TForm1.SavePictureToIniFile(const APicture: TPicture);
var
LInput: TMemoryStream;
MyIni: System.IniFiles.TMemIniFile;
ThisFile: string;
begin
if FileSaveDialog1.Execute then
ThisFile := FileSaveDialog1.FileName
else EXIT;
LInput := TMemoryStream.Create;
try
APicture.SaveToStream(LInput);
LInput.Position := 0;
MyIni := TMemIniFile.Create(ThisFile);
try
MyIni.WriteBinaryStream('Custom', 'IMG', LInput);
MyIni.UpdateFile;
finally
MyIni.Free;
end;
finally
LInput.Free;
end;
end;
I believe this is a limitation in the operating system's functions for handling INI files; the string is too long for it.
If you instead use the Delphi INI file implementation, TMemIniFile, it works just fine. Just don't forget to call MyIni.UpdateFile at the end.
Yes, this is indeed a limitation in the Windows API, as demonstrated by the following minimal example:
var
wini: TIniFile;
dini: TMemIniFile;
begin
wini := TIniFile.Create('C:\Users\Andreas Rejbrand\Desktop\winini.ini');
try
wini.WriteString('General', 'Text', StringOfChar('W', 10*1024*1024));
finally
wini.Free;
end;
dini := TMemIniFile.Create('C:\Users\Andreas Rejbrand\Desktop\pasini.ini');
try
dini.WriteString('General', 'Text', StringOfChar('D', 10*1024*1024));
dini.UpdateFile;
finally
dini.Free;
end;
(Recall that INI files were initially used to store small amounts of configuration data in the 16-bit Windows era.)
Also, Uwe Raabe is right: you should save the Base64 string as text.
I need to use a TRichEdit at runtime to perform the rtf to text conversion as discussed here. I succeded in doing this but I had to set a dummy form as parent if not I cannot populate the TRichedit.Lines. (Error: parent is missing).
I paste my funciton below, can anyone suggest a way to avoid to define a parent? Can you also comment on this and tell me if you find a more performant idea?
Note: I need a string, not TStrings as output, this is why it has been designed like this.
function RtfToText(const RTF: string;ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace: Boolean): string;
var
RTFConverter: TRichEdit;
MyStringStream: TStringStream;
i: integer;
CustomLineFeed: string;
begin
if ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace then
CustomLineFeed := ' '
else
CustomLineFeed := #13;
try
RTFConverter := TRichEdit.Create(nil);
try
MyStringStream := TStringStream.Create(RTF);
RTFConverter.parent := Form4; // this is the part I don't like
RTFConverter.Lines.LoadFromStream(MyStringStream);
RTFConverter.PlainText := True;
for i := 0 to RTFConverter.Lines.Count - 1 do
begin
if i < RTFConverter.Lines.Count - 1 then
Result := Result + RTFConverter.Lines[i] + CustomLineFeed
else
Result := Result + RTFConverter.Lines[i];
end;
finally
MyStringStream.Free;
end;
finally
RTFConverter.Free;
end;
end;
UPDATE:
After the answer I updated the function and write it here for reference:
function RtfToText(const RTF: string;ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace: Boolean): string;
var
RTFConverter: TRichEdit;
MyStringStream: TStringStream;
begin
RTFConverter := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
try
MyStringStream := TStringStream.Create(RTF);
try
RTFConverter.Lines.LoadFromStream(MyStringStream);
RTFConverter.PlainText := True;
RTFConverter.Lines.StrictDelimiter := True;
if ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace then
RTFConverter.Lines.Delimiter := ' '
else
RTFConverter.Lines.Delimiter := #13;
Result := RTFConverter.Lines.DelimitedText;
finally
MyStringStream.Free;
end;
finally
RTFConverter.Free;
end;
end;
TRichEdit control is an wrapper around the RichEdit control in Windows. Windows's controls are... well.. Windows, and they need an Window Handle to work. Delphi needs to call CreateWindow or CreateWindowEx to create the Handle, and both routines need an valid parent Window Handle to work. Delphi tries to use the handle of the control's parent (and it makes sense!). Happily one can use an alternative constructor (the CreateParanted(HWND) constructor) and the nice people at Microsoft made up the HWND_MESSAGE to be used as parent for windows that don't actually need a "window" (messaging-only).
This code works as expected:
procedure TForm2.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
var R:TRichEdit;
L:TStringList;
begin
R := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
try
R.PlainText := False;
R.Lines.LoadFromFile('C:\Temp\text.rtf');
R.PlainText := True;
Memo1.Lines.Text := R.Lines.Text;
finally
R.Free;
end;
end;
This is part of the way the VCL works, and you're not going to get it to work differently without some heavy workarounds. But you don't need to define a dummy form to be the parent; just use your current form and set visible := false; on the TRichEdit.
If you really want to improve performance, though, you could throw out that loop you're using to build a result string. It has to reallocate and copy memory a lot. Use the Text property of TrichEdit.Lines to get a CRLF between each line, and DelimitedText to get somethimg else, such as spaces. They use an internal buffer that's only allocated once, which will speed up the concatenation quite a bit if you're working with a lot of text.
I use DrawRichText to draw RTF without a RichEdit control. (IIRC this is called Windowless Rich Edit Controls.) Maybe you can use this also for converting - however I have never tried this.
This has been the most helpfull for me to get started with TRichEdit, but not with the conversion. This however works as expected and you don't need to set the Line Delimiter:
// RTF to Plain:
procedure TForm3.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
l:TStringList;
s:WideString;
RE:TRichEdit;
ss:TStringStream;
begin
ss := TStringStream.Create;
s := Memo1.Text; // Input String
RE := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
l := TStringList.Create;
l.Add(s);
ss.Position := 0;
l.SaveToStream(ss);
ss.Position := 0;
RE.Lines.LoadFromStream(ss);
Memo2.Text := RE.Text; // Output String
end;
// Plain to RTF:
procedure TForm3.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
var
RE:TRichEdit;
ss:TStringStream;
begin
RE := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
RE.Text := Memo2.Text; // Input String
ss := TStringStream.Create;
ss.Position := 0;
RE.Lines.SaveToStream(ss);
ss.Position := 0;
Memo1.Text := ss.ReadString(ss.Size); // Output String
end;
I'm using the TStringList "l" in the conversion to plain because somehow the TStringStream puts every single character in a new line.
Edit: Made the code a bit nicer and removed unused variables.
Anyone saw GOG.com game installer? How to make welcome text string like there including Path and Need Size in a single Caption? Where part of is bolded.
Here are examples of how changes String line breaking after modifying install path
You can use a TRichEditViewer setting the RFTText property and the UseRichEdit to True.
Try this sample
procedure CreateCustomPages;
var
Page : TWizardPage;
rtfHelpText : TRichEditViewer;
s: string;
begin
Page := CreateCustomPage(wpWelcome, 'Custom wizard page controls', 'Bold Demo');
Page.Surface.Align:=alCLient;
s:='{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang13322{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Tahoma;}}'+
'\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs16 This is a normal text, \b and this is a bold text\b0\par}';
rtfHelpText := TRichEditViewer.Create(Page);
rtfHelpText.Parent := Page.Surface;
rtfHelpText.Left := 0;
rtfHelpText.Top := 0;
rtfHelpText.Width := Page.SurfaceWidth;
rtfHelpText.Height := Page.SurfaceHeight;
rtfHelpText.Scrollbars := ssVertical;
rtfHelpText.ReadOnly := True;
rtfHelpText.UseRichEdit := True;
rtfHelpText.RTFText := s;
end;
procedure InitializeWizard();
begin
CreateCustomPages();
end;
I want to export content of a TQuery to a CSV file without using a 3d part component(Delphi 7). From my knowledge this can not be accomplished with Delphi standard components.
My solution was to save the content in a StringList with a CSV format, and save it to a file.
Is there any comfortable solution?
PS:I don't want to use JvCsvDataSet or any component. Question is: can this be accomplished only with Delphi 7 or higher standard components?
Thank you in advance!
Of course it can.
You just have to do the work to properly output the CSV content (quoting properly, handling embedded quotes and commas, etc.). You can easily write the output using TFileStream, and get the data using the TQuery.Fields and TQuery.FieldCount properly.
I'll leave the fancy CSV quoting and special handling to you. This will take care of the easy part:
var
Stream: TFileStream;
i: Integer;
OutLine: string;
sTemp: string;
begin
Stream := TFileStream.Create('C:\Data\YourFile.csv', fmCreate);
try
while not Query1.Eof do
begin
// You'll need to add your special handling here where OutLine is built
OutLine := '';
for i := 0 to Query.FieldCount - 1 do
begin
sTemp := Query.Fields[i].AsString;
// Special handling to sTemp here
OutLine := OutLine + sTemp + ',';
end;
// Remove final unnecessary ','
SetLength(OutLine, Length(OutLine) - 1);
// Write line to file
Stream.Write(OutLine[1], Length(OutLine) * SizeOf(Char));
// Write line ending
Stream.Write(sLineBreak, Length(sLineBreak));
Query1.Next;
end;
finally
Stream.Free; // Saves the file
end;
end;
The original question asked for a solution using a StringList. So it would be something more like this. It will work with any TDataSet, not just a TQuery.
procedure WriteDataSetToCSV(DataSet: TDataSet, FileName: String);
var
List: TStringList;
S: String;
I: Integer;
begin
List := TStringList.Create;
try
DataSet.First;
while not DataSet.Eof do
begin
S := '';
for I := 0 to DataSet.FieldCount - 1 do
begin
if S > '' then
S := S + ',';
S := S + '"' + DataSet.Fields[I].AsString + '"';
end;
List.Add(S);
DataSet.Next;
end;
finally
List.SaveToFile(FileName);
List.Free;
end;
end;
You can add options to change the delimiter type or whatever.
This is like the Rob McDonell solution but with some enhancements: header, escape chars, enclosure only when required, and ";" separator.
You can easily disable this enhancements if not required.
procedure SaveToCSV(DataSet: TDataSet; FileName: String);
const
Delimiter: Char = ';'; // In order to be automatically recognized in Microsoft Excel use ";", not ","
Enclosure: Char = '"';
var
List: TStringList;
S: String;
I: Integer;
function EscapeString(s: string): string;
var
i: Integer;
begin
Result := StringReplace(s,Enclosure,Enclosure+Enclosure,[rfReplaceAll]);
if (Pos(Delimiter,s) > 0) OR (Pos(Enclosure,s) > 0) then // Comment this line for enclosure in every fields
Result := Enclosure+Result+Enclosure;
end;
procedure AddHeader;
var
I: Integer;
begin
S := '';
for I := 0 to DataSet.FieldCount - 1 do begin
if S > '' then
S := S + Delimiter;
S := S + EscapeString(DataSet.Fields[I].FieldName);
end;
List.Add(S);
end;
procedure AddRecord;
var
I: Integer;
begin
S := '';
for I := 0 to DataSet.FieldCount - 1 do begin
if S > '' then
S := S + Delimiter;
S := S + EscapeString(DataSet.Fields[I].AsString);
end;
List.Add(S);
end;
begin
List := TStringList.Create;
try
DataSet.DisableControls;
DataSet.First;
AddHeader; // Comment if header not required
while not DataSet.Eof do begin
AddRecord;
DataSet.Next;
end;
finally
List.SaveToFile(FileName);
DataSet.First;
DataSet.EnableControls;
List.Free;
end;
end;
Delphi does not provide any built-in access to .csv data.
However, following the VCL TXMLTransform paradigm, I wrote a TCsvTransform class helper that will translate a .csv structure to /from a TClientDataSet.
As for the initial question that was to export a TQuery to .csv, a simple TDataSetProvider will make the link between TQuery and TClientDataSet.
For more details about TCsvTransform, cf http://didier.cabale.free.fr/delphi.htm#uCsvTransform
Is it possible to, for instance, replace and free a TEdit with a subclassed component instantiated (conditionally) at runtime? If so, how and when it should be done? I've tried to set the parent to nil and to call free() in the form constructor and AfterConstruction methods but in both cases I got a runtime error.
Being more specific, I got an Access violation error (EAccessViolation). It seems François is right when he says that freeing components at frame costruction messes with Form controls housekeeping.
This more generic routine works either with a Form or Frame (updated to use a subclass for the new control):
function ReplaceControlEx(AControl: TControl; const AControlClass: TControlClass; const ANewName: string; const IsFreed : Boolean = True): TControl;
begin
if AControl = nil then
begin
Result := nil;
Exit;
end;
Result := AControlClass.Create(AControl.Owner);
CloneProperties(AControl, Result);// copy all properties to new control
// Result.Left := AControl.Left; // or copy some properties manually...
// Result.Top := AControl.Top;
Result.Name := ANewName;
Result.Parent := AControl.Parent; // needed for the InsertControl & RemoveControl magic
if IsFreed then
FreeAndNil(AControl);
end;
function ReplaceControl(AControl: TControl; const ANewName: string; const IsFreed : Boolean = True): TControl;
begin
if AControl = nil then
Result := nil
else
Result := ReplaceControlEx(AControl, TControlClass(AControl.ClassType), ANewName, IsFreed);
end;
using this routine to pass the properties to the new control
procedure CloneProperties(const Source: TControl; const Dest: TControl);
var
ms: TMemoryStream;
OldName: string;
begin
OldName := Source.Name;
Source.Name := ''; // needed to avoid Name collision
try
ms := TMemoryStream.Create;
try
ms.WriteComponent(Source);
ms.Position := 0;
ms.ReadComponent(Dest);
finally
ms.Free;
end;
finally
Source.Name := OldName;
end;
end;
use it like:
procedure TFrame1.AfterConstruction;
var
I: Integer;
NewEdit: TMyEdit;
begin
inherited;
NewEdit := ReplaceControlEx(Edit1, TMyEdit, 'Edit2') as TMyEdit;
if Assigned(NewEdit) then
begin
NewEdit.Text := 'My Brand New Edit';
NewEdit.Author := 'Myself';
end;
for I:=0 to ControlCount-1 do
begin
ShowMessage(Controls[I].Name);
end;
end;
CAUTION: If you are doing this inside the AfterConstruction of the Frame, beware that the hosting Form construction is not finished yet.
Freeing Controls there, might cause a lot of problems as you're messing up with Form controls housekeeping.
See what you get if you try to read the new Edit Caption to display in the ShowMessage...
In that case you would want to use
...ReplaceControl(Edit1, 'Edit2', False)
and then do a
...FreeAndNil(Edit1)
later.
You have to call RemoveControl of the TEdit's parent to remove the control. Use InsertControl to add the new control.
var Edit2: TEdit;
begin
Edit2 := TEdit.Create(self);
Edit2.Left := Edit1.Left;
Edit2.Top := Edit2.Top;
Edit1.Parent.Insertcontrol(Edit2);
TWinControl(Edit1.parent).RemoveControl(Edit1);
Edit1.Free;
end;
Replace TEdit.Create to the class you want to use, and copy all properties you need like I did with Left and Top.
You can actually use RTTI (look in the TypInfo unit) to clone all the matching properties. I wrote code for this a while back, but I can't find it now. I'll keep looking.